Science: invertebrate investigations

Get pupils to “learn by doing” and take science into the school grounds with Invertebrate Investigations.

This outdoor lesson gets pupils to come up with questions about invertebrates in their local area before planning an investigation to find the answer.

Questions could include:

• Do more invertebrates live in shady or sunny areas?
• What is the best place in the school grounds for invertebrates and why?
• What types of flowers to pollinators prefer?

Not only is this a brilliant way to get children and young people thinking in more depth about the life of an invertebrate, but it can also easily be adapted depending on their age. You can push older students to think a little deeper, whilst younger children can be more playful with their approach.

Then comes the fun part: ask pupils to plan and carry out an investigation to solve the question. Get them to create a hypothesis, method and equipment plan whilst considering the impact of factors such as temperature, light and moisture on their investigation.

Finally, you can even get pupils to practice their presentation skills by sharing their investigation findings with the rest of the class. Sounds like an all-rounder to us!

This resource has been developed by Learning through Landscapes and is adaptable for age groups. It includes references to the curriculum in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. For more ideas check out their Curriculum Linked Resources book in the Outdoor Library. 

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Therefore you can share, use and build upon it as you need to.

We hope you enjoy!