Mapping water habitats

1. Ask learners to work in small groups (three or four works well) and give them each a set of Reed uses cards.  
2. Give the group 10 minutes to read through the different uses on each card and order them by how useful they think they are. Remind the learners that there is no right answer, but they must listen carefully to each other to come to a consensus.   
3. Use the final 5 minutes to ask groups to share and compare the order of their cards, justifying their decisions to the class. (You might prompt your class by asking them to think about how beneficial the uses are to humans, to animals, to the environment, and which uses are more sustainable).
4. After completing this activity, head to an area of your site that holds water for at least two months of the year. There doesn’t need to be water there at the time of the activity. Depending on how much support learners need, if you have multiple areas of water on your site you may wish to ask each group to investigate a different area – this will help you to map multiple areas in one session.
5. Each group can use the Water habitat flowchart, answering each question to reach a decision on which habitat they have. Repeat this for each area of water on your site, until you have identified them all.   
6. If using a printed map of your site: ask learners to draw and label the habitat they have just identified on the map. If using the Habitat Mapper tool on a mobile device: educators and learners can work together to accurately draw the habitat on the map.
7. If you used a printed map, remember to add the habitats identified to the Nature Park map using the Habitat Mapper tool when you are back in the classroom. This is a really important step to ensure your site and your observations contribute to real-world, groundbreaking research by the Natural History Museum into nature recovery. 

Open Habitat Mapper tool

Reflection

Encourage learners to reflect on the water habitats present in their surroundings. Consider whether these habitats primarily serve human needs or wildlife. Discuss the significance of water sources for nature - drinking, bathing, breeding (e.g. frogs), or living an entirely aquatic lifestyle. Explore the role of waterbodies in supporting biodiversity and sustaining life.  

You could also reflect on the locations of water habitats on your site and whether they contribute to managing water flow and limiting flooding - would rain water flow into them after a heavy storm, for example? Discuss the potential impact of water habitats in mitigating the effects of climate change and extreme weather.