Imagine you are the first person ever to study the living things in our school grounds. Where would you start looking, and what would you write down first?

Today we begin a two-part project: we survey a real patch outside, just as ecologists (scientists who study living things outdoors) do before they act to protect a place.

Today we need two words for our outdoor work.

We will take a careful look and record what we find. Why do scientists mark one small patch instead of wandering the whole field?

Our class will survey one chosen patch of the school grounds. Talk with your group: what living things do you predict you will find, and will the patch feel damp or dry, sunny or shady?

We are going outside to survey our chosen patch the way ecologists do. Each group has one job sequence:

1. Place your quadrat gently on the agreed patch.
2. Look only inside the hoop for plants and minibeasts (small animals like worms, woodlice and spiders). Use the ID cards to name what you find.
3. On your outdoor tally sheet, mark every living thing inside the hoop.
4. Finish your tally.
5. Circle damp or dry, and sunny or shady.
6. Write what two living things seem to need.
7. Put every living thing gently back where you found it. Move slowly and lift leaves carefully.

Back inside, open today's Investigation Journal page. Use these headings:

• What we found (list or tally from your outdoor tally sheet)
• Conditions (damp or dry, sunny or shady)
• What two living things seem to need
• One question we still have