In this activity, students plan a storyboard along the lines of television shows such as Man vs. Wild and Survivor to illustrate how humans can use ferns to survive in the bush.
Note: With much of our native bush already under threat from introduced animals, please do not gather ferns from the wild, nor should students actually eat any of the recommended fern species. One website on New Zealand wild foods says that, of the 312 varieties of pikopiko fern, only 7 are edible. If you don’t know what you are picking, don’t eat it!
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
- identify some ferns that are useful for construction purposes
- identify some ferns that are useful as food sources
- identify some ferns that are useful as track markers
- better understand and appreciate how interlinked our ancestors were with their environment.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
- introduction/background notes
- instructions on what you need and what to do
- extension ideas
- student handouts.
