A Wild Australia Guide – Steve Parish PUblishing
Steve Parish’s A Wild Australia Guide series of books cover a range of Australian wildlife from birds and butterflies to mammals and moths. Written by a variety of expert authors it contains a range of information including identification, habitat, behaviour and diet. There are 20 guides with a recommended retail price of $14.95, however most school libraries stock at least some of the titles. The photography titles are also available as PDF ebooks.
The Wild Australia Guides are a great resource for upper primary to secondary students and can be used to extend students understanding of a given topic and help with assignments. The guides can also be used as a simple field guide but further research will be required for more obscure species.
Students will love the crisp photography Steve Parish publications are renowned for and find the layout of information easy to follow and, although a range of scientific terms such as ‘cephalothorax’ are used, a handy glossary is included to help build their scientific vocabulary.
We have found the Butterflies & Moths, Spiders and Beetles & Bugs editions to be most useful in our own research. These would also be useful in mini-beast activities for primary and secondary field work. You can find a few ideas over at the Bug Blitz site where students drive the activities following the pattern of inquiry-based learning.
This post was written by the Narmbool Education team as part of our celebrations for the National Year of Reading.
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