Teaching Tools
The Baobab Award
As a means of promoting a conservation and sustainable lifestyle, the Baobab Award was created as an incentive to leave a positive footprint on our world...
Although the award was initially used to inspire our school community, there is no reason why other interested and passionate families cannot take up the challenge. The core of the award is to make attempts at being greener and seeing opportunities to understand the world around us. It is aimed at a family, rather than individuals, in the hope that taking up the challenge might inspire a community.
|
Mazingira: An Ecology Game
MAZINGIRA
Noun
THE RULES
Each animal is given a score based on their role in the ecosystem (their niche), their conservation status and their level in the food pyramid.
Noun
- Swahili word: a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.
- Swahili word: a complex network or interconnected system.
THE RULES
Each animal is given a score based on their role in the ecosystem (their niche), their conservation status and their level in the food pyramid.
- Conservation status:
- Least Concern: Lowest risk; widespread 2
- Near Threatened: Likely to become endangered in the near future 4
- Vulnerable: High risk of endangerment in the wild 6
- Endangered: High risk of extinction in the wild 8
- Critically Endangered: Extremely high risk of extinction in the wild 10
- Food Pyramid Status (Trophic Level)
3. Ecological Niche/Interactions
This ranking is based on how the organism contributes to the greater environment through habitat creation, seed dispersal, germination, being a food source or crating a food source, engineering the environment and through their symbiotic or mutualistic interactions with other organisms. Points are awarded for each of these criteria so that:
This ranking is based on how the organism contributes to the greater environment through habitat creation, seed dispersal, germination, being a food source or crating a food source, engineering the environment and through their symbiotic or mutualistic interactions with other organisms. Points are awarded for each of these criteria so that:
- Top Scale: Widespread/varied interactions with a variety of different organisms 10
- Bottom Scale: Limited interactions with other organisms 1
|
The aim of the game is simple: the cards work as trump cards with each species being represented from plants, to insects, to mammals, to reptiles and birds. The cards are distributed in their numbers according to the abundance of each species. Players trade cards, by trying to trump the number in any one criteria from their opposing player. If the opposition's number is higher in any one area, the player will lose their card to the opposition.
|
Junior Rangers
During a recent visit to the Pilanesberg, I was surprized by a few of the comments I overheard whilst watching animals at the various hides. Many of these comments were about the 'Big 5' and it was clear that the patrons of the area were predominantly concerned with these sightings over anything else.
It was clear that the richness and biodiversity of the environment was something that had been forgotten, and thus hatched an idea to include an online checklist that would enable patrons of our National Parks to appreciate the ecology and perhaps conversation of our wild spaces.