Bug catchers grab your nets! Get up close and personal with some fabulous insects to appreciate their unique features and create your very own museum style bug collection box identifying a range of different bugs.

Entomologist, Shasta Henry, will lead this engaging and fun VC program. Dr Henry will showcase some of her favourite insects and demonstrate how you can distinguish them from similar species.

More than one million different species of insect have been described to date. They are the most abundant group of animals in the world and live in almost every habitat. Insects have lived on earth for more than 350 million years. Entomology is crucial to our understanding of human disease, agriculture, evolution, ecology and biodiversity.

You will receive a STEM in a Box kit of resources and a teacher guide for this session.

No prior knowledge is required.

In this program students will:

• Gain an understanding of insect bodily parts and their functions.
• Identify insects based on their features.
• Learn to spot the differences between pairs of commonly mistaken insects.

In this video conference students will:

• Observe a number of insects and bugs and learn what distinguishes them.
• Create your very own bug box.
• Use insect stickers to categorise a variety of insects.
• Use hand movements to replicate insect wing folding and eating behaviours.
• Create their own insect by selecting from a range of common insect body parts.

Science: Science as a human endeavour

• Scientific knowledge is based on observations of the natural world using the senses, and scientific tools and instruments (VC2S2H01)
• Science is used by people in their daily lives, including asking questions and using patterns from observations of the world around them to make scientific predictions (VC2S2H02)

Science: Science Understanding

• Plants and animals have observable features that can be used to group them in different ways (VC2S2U01)
• Plants and animals have external features that perform different functions to enable their survival; in plants these features include roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruit, bulbs, trunks and branches while different features in animals enable them to move, breathe, eat and respond to their environment. (VC2S2U03)