Our specialist entomologist teacher, Robinne, has been inspiring and educating our Wheriko students about our precious soil and the fascinating organisms that live in it.

We have been learning about different types of roots and their functions, as well as the composition of soil and why each component is important to soil function. We have looked at why soil and soil conservation are important to both humans and the environment. 

Recently we explored organisms that live in the soil and the different attributes of herbivores, omnivores, predators, decomposers, detritivores, parasites and gastropods that inhabit our soil ecosystem. Live insects created a lot of excitement, as did studying live slimes and moulds under a microscope.

Megan - "This Term we have been doing science with Robinne. The sessions are about what goes on in plants under the soil, all the roots of plants and all the bugs that live there. We got to look at plants and water under the microscope, to see all the different bugs living in them. We also got to hold some of the bugs, like earthworms, beetle larvae, and slugs. Some of the things we learnt, are that some of the foods we eat are actually roots! Another thing we learned is that some types of bugs are detritivores, some are decomposers, some are carnivores and predators, some are herbivores, and some are parasites! Detritivores and decomposers eat dead plants and things in the soil, carnivores and predators eat other bugs, herbivores eat plants, and parasites live their entire lives in another animal or plant!"

Tremain - "Over the past few weeks my class has been doing some science with Robinne, which included looking at plant roots and looking at some bugs that live in our dirt, we even got to see some that you could only see with a microscope!!! Personally I really enjoyed science because I learnt a lot and I also got to see some things that I have never seen and even been able to hold some of them. The last session I had was one where we got to see insects and bugs from the dirt. My favourite bug was definitely the slaters because they were very cute and they even went up into tiny little balls!"