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Catalyst: Quoll rescue

Discover what threatens a native Australian predator and how scientists are hoping to save it from extinction. This clip about quolls in the Northern Territory describes the causes of its decline and a rescue strategy to save it from extinction. The strategy has a surprising twist - it features the very thing that is threatening ...

Video

Too cold for cane toads

A new study reported in this video segment has looked at how temperatures impact cane toad movement and has aided in the development of a model that indicates that their geographical spread is limited. An excellent example of the use of mathematical modelling in scientific research and how scientists have tried to address ...

Interactive

Sampling Technique

Students use this resource consisting of four slides with diagrams, written explanation and voice-over to understand some different methods of collecting animals in the wild. There is a two-question quiz and a summary slide.

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Turtles

This 7 minute video segment from Catalyst describes the risk factors that impact on turtle survival. Protecting the future of turtle populations on the Queensland coast has been the life's work of Col Limpus for the past 40 years. His efforts have included research and reducing predation from foxes and entrapment in trawler nets.

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Kooaaa! It's a kookaburra

This ABC In Depth feature article describes how kookaburra chicks fight for survival in the family nest in springtime.

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Party locusts

This 8 minute video segment from Catalyst is an excellent example of animal behaviour of locusts as a successful adaptation and how understanding the behaviour can potentially help reduce the damage they cause.

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Cracked soils

This brief video segment from Catalyst demonstrates how scientists have developed probes to measure the water content of soils and therefore monitor the effectiveness of irrigation and the efficiency of water usage.

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Rainforest fruit power

This ABC In Depth feature article discusses human potential use rainforest fruit-bearing plants and the need to maintain biodiversity. Many biotic interactions that effect reproduction and dispersal are described. Issues about using seed banks to try to maintain biodiversity are discussed.

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Water recycling

This 11 minute video segment from Catalyst provides an excellent explanation of the processes involved in recycling sewage for an urban water supply. It also provides a range of opinions and concerns in an excellent debate on the topic.

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Argo floats

This minute video segment from Catalyst decade ago describes the Australian initiative, Argo, that has become a major international collaborative project to look at the world's oceans and help understand processes at depth - monitoring the pulse of the global heat balance and giving us vital information on the ocean's role ...

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Rob Harcourt

This 6 minute video segment from Catalyst highlights a number of diverse investigations that are part of the work of a marine biologist. It uses an incredible collection of photographs to inform and inspire people about conservation.

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Dengue Mozzie

This nine and a half minute video segment from Catalyst is an excellent example of current Australian science, the use of biological controls on a pest and modern techniques and approaches to fighting the spread of human disease.

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Weedy Seadragons

This five and a half minute video segment from Catalyst demonstrates how tagging is being used to study populations of sea dragons. The Weedy Seadragon is one of the most visually striking creatures in the sea but we still have a lot to learn about them.

Interactive

Murray-Darling Basin Quiz

This is a ten question multiple choice quiz on student understanding of issues specific to the Murray-Darling Basin, but are examples of common Australian environmental problems resulting from human activities. This is a non-threatening activity that provides excellent explanations as feedback.

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Ibis Invasion

This ABC In Depth feature article describes research on Australian white ibis - or 'tip turkeys' as many call them. They are regarded as a nuisance in cities, especially in the spring breeding season. But scientists fear they may become extinct as more pressure is put on the wetlands that are their native and adopted environments. ...

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Dr Ove Goegh-Guldberg

This 5 minute video segment from Catalyst highlights the vulnerability of some of our ecosystems and the way abiotic factors can have a dramatic effect. It also exemplifies the difficult process of having new scientific ideas accepted.

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Artificial shark birth

A five and a half minute video segment from Catalyst that explains why Grey Nurse Sharks are in danger, especially on Australia's east coast where only a few hundred individuals are thought to exist. However, in a world first, researchers at the NSW Department of Primary Industries have built an artificial uterus, which ...

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Rehabilitation on North Stradbroke Island

Find out how miners plan for and carry out revegetation of sand mining sites. This is a PowerPoint presentation that shows the pre-mine surveys, planning, plant propagation, dune re-profiling and maintenance work carried out by Consolidated Rutile Limited (CRL) in rehabilitating land on North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, ...

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Rehabilitation of a mine site

Find out how the landscape is repaired after open-cut mining. This is a PowerPoint presentation showing rehabilitation work carried out at the Ensham open-cut coal mine in central Queensland. The slides are predominantly pictorial and illustrate the processes of planning, removal and stockpiling of overburden, mining, surface ...

Interactive

Studying Habitats

Students use this resource consisting of four slides with diagrams, written explanation and voice-over to understand the type of observations and measurements that need to be made when studying an ecosystem. There is a two-question quiz and a summary slide.