Prior Knowledge:  The short-beaked echidna is a mammal (but an unusual one belonging to the ORDER Monotremata, the monotremes).

Mammals share the following in common:-

they have backbones or in other words they are vertebrates;

they breathe air;

they have warm blood;

they have hair;

they nurse their babies with milk.

A Biologist is a scientist that studies living things.

Kangaroo Island is off the coast of South Australia.  It has a large National Park called the Flinders Chase National Park.

Navigating the Website.

Miss Scott or your own teacher will show you what to read and what to click on.

First we will learn how our opportunity to join in Teach Live came about.  CLICK ON "About Earthwatch".  Your teacher will read from the site - listen carefully!

[Note: many words and their meaning will be unfamiliar, so put up your hand and speak up to be sure you get the answers to your questions whenever you have one.]

FOCUS QUESTIONS:Why should everybody know about problems in our environment?   [The environment is a collective term for the conditions in which an organism (like us) lives e.g. temperature, light, water, soil, other organisms.]

Why would we want an environment to be sustainable?  [Sustainable in this context means that things that keep the environment healthy remain in place.  The antonym would be degraded e.g. the saline and structure damaged soils of Western Australia's wheatbelt region.]    

Now CLICK ON "About Teach Live", listen to your teacher read then open the Woodside Energy Ltd link.  Find out about Woodside and what their business is - CLICK ON the Asia and Australia section of the map and listen again to your teacher.

Look at the bottom of the screen and you will see a link to "Environmental Policy" - point out that Companies have formal policies regarding the environment and commit to following government guidelines and minimising their impact on the environment.

CLICK ON "Map of Kangaroo Island" this site has a list of interesting 'Fast Facts'

Further Activities.

You will need to understand the words ECOLOGY and ECOSYSTEM for tomorrow so look in a dictionary, encylopedia or science text to discover their meanings.  Your teacher will help you with these meanings.  NOW write down in your own words how you understand the meaning of these words. 

Why is the Echidna an unusual mammal?  Name something that the female echidna and the female platypus does that is so different from other mammals.

Woodside Energy Ltd extracts oil and gas from under the ground and from beneath the seabed.  How do we use the products from these natural resources everyday at home and at school?