Mapping microhabitats

Mapping microhabitats - homes and help for nature - is part of the Mapping your site activities, enabling you to explore and map the habitats your site currently offers for nature. Understanding your starting point is really important and will allow you to measure any nature gains you achieve when you start making enhancements to your site. Mapping the microhabitats on your site is one of eight habitat mapping sessions in this unit of learning. 

You can carry out this activity at any time of year. 

Getting to know your space

~ 1 hour
KS1
KS2
KS3

Preparation

Green skills

  • identification and ecology
  • recording data
  • environmental stewardship and horticulture 

What you need

  • Microhabitats Worksheet - Homes and Help for Nature ticksheet
  • a tablet, laptop, or desktop PC to access the online Habitat Mapper tool
  • a printed map of your site, if you do not intend to use the Habitat Mapper outdoors

Location

Outdoors

Useful guidance

Microhabitats Worksheet - Homes and Help for Nature.pdf 885.53 KB
Mapping Microhabitats Activity Guide.pdf 911.36 KB

Step by step

  1. Learners can work independently or in small groups. Give each a copy of the Microhabitats Worksheet - Homes and Help for Nature ticksheet.
  2. Set a timer (e.g. for five minutes) and ask learners to search a particular area of your site for the pictured items and tick the ones they find.  
  3. Ask learners to stay by a microhabitat when they find one and put their hand up. Move round to each in turn. On the Habitat Mapper tool, or a printed map of your site, educators and learners work together to draw on these areas of habitat. 
  4. Move round your site, if needed, and repeat this process in a different part of your site until you have covered all areas.
  5. Bring the group together and discuss how each item on the ticksheet might support nature – is it a long term home, a resource for breeding, a source of food or temporary shelter? What kinds of animals might use it?
  6. If you used a printed map, transfer it all to the Nature Park map using the Habitat Mapper tool back in the classroom. This is a really important step to ensure your site and your observations are part of national community science research.
  7. Return to the Mapping your site page and select the next habitat category you have on site.

Reflection

Discuss with learners how many of the different homes and help for nature items were found. Did you only have one of each, or multiple? Ask learners if they noticed any items that were not on the ticksheet and discuss how these may help nature. Are there opportunities to add more or different kinds of homes and help for nature on your site? Encourage learners to share their observations and ideas during this discussion.