Use this key to identify bugs using the Agreed Level Taxonomy (ALT) method.

Some waterbugs are impossible to identify without a microscope, the best thing about ALT is that it uses features that are visible to the naked eye to identify macroinvertebrates.

For more info on ALT method, go to: thewaterbug.net

• Fact sheet, Lower Secondary, Poster, Teacher, Upper Secondary, Water bugs,

• Catchments, Guide/activity booklet, Suitable age group, Teacher, Waterways,
• All Regions,

Use this poster to help students explore waterbugs – it has their sensitivity score.

It can be laminated (or similar) for reuse or printed and used as tick sheet for students.

You can use it to explore which areas the animals live in also! (Five habitats are marked on the poster).

• Activity Sheet, All, Catchments, Fauna (animals), Guide/activity booklet, Poster, Suitable age group, Topics, Water bugs,
• All Regions,

https://www.riverdetectives.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Sensitive-waterbugs.pdf

Use Melbourne Water’s beautiful colouring images of waterbugs to add to your lessons.

A mix of waterbugs

Sensitive waterbugs

Mayfly life cycles

• Activity Sheet, Catchments, Lower Primary, Water bugs,
• All Regions,

Use Melbourne Water’s beautiful image of the platypus as a mindful colouring activity.

• Activity Sheet, Catchments, Lower Primary, Upper Primary, Water bugs,
• All Regions,

Find out all the facts about the introduced fish species in this factsheet

• All, Catchments, Fact sheet, Fauna (animals), Waterways,
• All Regions,

This will help you to enter data into the website once you have been to site to collect it!

• General, Guide/activity booklet, Teacher,
• All Regions,

Landcare represents thousands of people across Victoria, working together to increase biodiversity and promote the sustainable management of land.

Find out what your local group is doing and how your River Detectives program might be able to link up with them.

To find your local group visit Landcare – if you scroll down you can look by group name or further down by a map.

• Flora (plants), Group/organisation, Teacher, Waterways,
• All Regions,

• All, Poster, Salinity, Teacher, Water Science,
• All Regions,

This video takes you through the key steps of how to sample and look for macroinvertebrates (waterbugs) with your kids! Priya makes it simple for you to take testing to your school.

Don’t forget to contact your local Catchment Management Authority to see if you can borrow some equipment to run the testing with your group.

• Fauna (animals), Teacher, Type, Video, Water bugs,
• All Regions,

See the Wimmera Catchment with colour and clear outline of waterways and water bodies.

You can find a map of the Wimmera Catchment here – which is different to the CMA borders (a little confusing I know!).

• All, Catchments, Map, Type, Waterways,
• Wimmera CMA,

Use these bug outlines to colour in, put in their correct habitat, get student’s to write facts about them or investigate them!

• Activity Sheet, Lower Primary, Suitable age group, Teacher, Topics, Type, Upper Primary, Water bugs,
• All Regions,

Follow the Teachers Guide to support students carrying out the activity – Meandering Map.

• Activity Sheet, Catchments, Lower Primary, Topics, Type, Upper Primary, Waterways,
• Corangamite CMA,

Make your own bug dial so that you can look at individual bugs and the way they move, their tolerance, where they live and special features.

• Activity Sheet, All, Catchments, Fauna (animals), Topics, Type, Water bugs, Waterways,
• All Regions,

Check out:

– where your local Junior Landcare group is

– how to get Landcare going in your school

– activity ideas (linked to the Australian curriculum)

– apply for grants

– how to guides for worm farms, frog ponds, enhancing habitats and more!

• All, Catchments, Flora (plants), Teacher, Website,
• All Regions,

The famous Waterwatch game Run of the River can be taken into the classroom very easily:

Download the Board

Read the Teacher Instructions

And find out How to play

• Catchments, Game, Lower Secondary, Suitable age group, Upper Primary, Upper Secondary, Waterways,
• All Regions,

Information developed by Melbourne Water about monitoring for the platypus. Lots of great information and potential posters for the classroom.

• All, Fact sheet, Fauna (animals), Suitable age group, Topics, Type,
• All Regions, Melbourne Water,

Find out all about how to create a frog friendly habitat

• All, Catchments, Fact sheet, Fauna (animals), Suitable age group, Topics, Type, Waterways,
• All Regions,

Find out all about the FRDC’s plan for controlling carp – informative and interesting!

• Catchments, Fact sheet, Fauna (animals), Teacher, Topics, Type, Upper Secondary, Waterways,
• All Regions,

Use this information and images about water bugs to put each of the water bugs into the correct habitat on the  in-stream-habitat-poster or play a game of snap!

• Activity Sheet, All, Fauna (animals), Game, Suitable age group, Topics, Type, Water bugs, Waterways,
• All Regions,

Salinity refers to the movement and concentration of salt through the landscape. Find out more here!

• Catchments, Fact sheet, Lower Secondary, Suitable age group, Teacher, Topics, Upper Secondary, Water Science, Waterways,
• All Regions,

A catchment is the area of land from which rainfall flows to form a creek or river.

Find out how it is managed and what are some threats to catchments.

• Catchments, Fact sheet, Lower Primary, Lower Secondary, Suitable age group, Topics, Upper Secondary, Water Science, Waterways,
• All Regions,

What algae is that? Why is it there? Find out more here!

• Lower Secondary, Suitable age group, Teacher, Upper Secondary,
• All Regions,

What is stormwater? What happens to it and what can we do to help protect our waterways?

• Catchments, Fact sheet, Lower Secondary, Suitable age group, Teacher, Upper Secondary, Urban Water, Waterways,
• All Regions,

Find out about what causes phosphorus in a waterway.

• Catchments, Fact sheet, Lower Secondary, Suitable age group, Teacher, Topics, Upper Secondary, Water Science, Waterways,
• All Regions,

Find out about what the different habitats near a waterway are and the benefits of them!

• Catchments, Lower Secondary, Teacher, Upper Secondary, Water Science, Waterways,
• All Regions,

The riparian zone is any land that adjoins, directly influences, or is influenced by a body of water. Find out what the values, threats and management concerns are.

• Catchments, Fact sheet, Flora (plants), Lower Secondary, Suitable age group, Upper Secondary, Water Science, Waterways,
• All Regions,

Find out about why water sometimes turns black!

• Catchments, Fact sheet, Lower Secondary, Upper Secondary, Water Science, Waterways,
• All Regions,

Find out about what a woody habitat is, why it is there and what is being done to manage them.

• Catchments, Fact sheet, Flora (plants), Lower Secondary, Teacher, Upper Secondary, Waterways,
• All Regions,

Find about how and why foam occurs in waterways.

• Catchments, Fact sheet, Lower Secondary, Teacher, Topics, Upper Secondary, Water Science, Waterways,
• All Regions,

Explore the catchments of Melbourne!

• All, Catchments, Map, Waterways,
• Melbourne Water,

Explore the Natural Water Cycle through South East Water’s interactive information and game.

• All, Catchments, Game, Suitable age group, Topics, Type, Urban Water, Water cycles, Website,
• All Regions,

Find out some more detail about your local area by looking at the below Catchment Maps:

Upper Loddon Map; Upper Campaspe Map; Upper Avoca River Map; Lower Loddon River Map; Lower Campaspe Map; Lower Avoca Map; Loddon West Map; Loddon East Map; Gunbower Map; Coliban Map; Avon Richardson Map

• Catchments, Map, Suitable age group, Topics, Type, Waterways,
• North Central CMA,

Download the sections of the teachers manual to guide you through a range of topics relating to Catchment Health:

Introduction to River Detectives Manual; Water Science; Homely Habitats and Homely Habitats Diagram; Story of a River; Getting Froggy; Salt Watch Week; Stormwater; Macroinvertebrates (waterbugs); Making macroinvertebrates

• Catchments, Fauna (animals), Flora (plants), Guide/activity booklet, Suitable age group, Teacher, Topics, Type, Urban Water, Water bugs, Water Science, Waterways,
• All Regions, North Central CMA,

This game is educational and fun!

You have the following challenge: Water is scarce and needs to be shared around. You must deliver the bubbles of water from the river to the wetlands, farms and communities, whilst keeping the river mouth connected to the ocean. Control dam releases to quench the thirst of all your water consumers through the challenges of flood, drought, evaporation, seasonal changes….

• All, Catchments, Game, Suitable age group, Topics, Type, Waterways,
• All Regions,

By being a part of River Detectives you should check your Biodiversity module to tick off some extra areas!

• Catchments, Estuaries, Fauna (animals), Flora (plants), Suitable age group, Teacher, Topics, Type, Waterways, Website,
• All Regions,

• Activity Sheet, All, Fauna (animals), Suitable age group, Topics, Type,
• All Regions, Melbourne Water,

• Activity Sheet, All, Fauna (animals), Suitable age group, Topics, Type,
• All Regions, Melbourne Water,

• Activity Sheet, All, Fauna (animals), Suitable age group, Topics, Type, Waterways,
• All Regions, Melbourne Water,

A guide to water quality testing and sampling – full of lots of information to  guide you!

Get your School Field Manual now!

• Catchments, Guide/activity booklet, Teacher, Water Science, Waterways,
• All Regions,

Find some game ideas to run with your class with bits and pieces ideas sheet!

• Catchments, Guide/activity booklet, Teacher, Waterways,
• Corangamite CMA,

Stormwater Manual – activities, information and worksheets

• Catchments, Guide/activity booklet, Teacher, Urban Water,
• All Regions,

See where Corangamite’s Catchments are… you might like to print this to put on your wall at school.

• All, Catchments, Map, Waterways,
• Corangamite CMA,

You might want to look at salinity at anytime of the year, but we have a close look at Salinity in May and invite you to as well. Look at the booklet below and even watch the ‘Fresh and Salty’ video too!

Booklet of Activities

• Guide/activity booklet, Salinity, Teacher, Water Science, Waterways,
• All Regions,

Find out all about the frogs and where you can find them, how to encourage them to your area and some rules around frogs too – Frog Info here!

• All, Catchments, Fact sheet, Fauna (animals),
• Corangamite CMA,

How do I run a sweep sample for my students?

FInd out how to sweep sample now!

• Fauna (animals), Guide/activity booklet, Teacher, Water bugs, Waterways,
• Corangamite CMA,

Activities all about stormwater in Geelong!

Get your local stormwater manual now to guide your lessons in  the classroom.

• Guide/activity booklet, Teacher, Urban Water,
• Corangamite CMA,

See the highs and lows of the North Central region and everything in between!

• All, Catchments, Fauna (animals), Flora (plants), Map, Waterways,
• North Central CMA,

• Fact sheet, Lower Secondary, Upper Secondary, Water Science, Waterways,
• All Regions,

• Fact sheet, Lower Secondary, Upper Secondary, Water Science, Waterways,
• All Regions,

• All, Estuaries, Guide/activity booklet,
• All Regions,

Find out all about the weird and wonderful details of all the water bugs with flip charts for each animal.

• All, Water bugs,

Watch environmental change occur over a period of nine days at a drying waterhole at a public wetland located in North Central Victoria.

• All, Catchments, Fauna (animals), Video,

Fresh and Salty is a short animated film produced by the Wimmera Catchment Management Authority. Great for students!

• All, Catchments, Salinity, Video, Water Science, Waterways,
• All Regions,