Biosecurity Officer - Fun Activities - Government and Defence

Government & Defence - BIOSECURITY OFFICER

Bee Patrol

Middle Secondary

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Critical and creative thinking

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Numeracy

Australian Curriculum General Capability: ICT Capability

Australian Curriculum Cross Curriculum Priorities: Sustainability Priority

1. Look at the following video from Landline 5 November 2016 Video

2. What is the problem?

How are these biosecurity officers attacking the problem.
What is the biology of the bee, mites and virus? How does the virus spread?
What is the solution? Who solved this problem?

3. What are the facts and figures explained in this video? Share with a partner.

4. Cargo ships carried thousands of containers which could be a biosecurity risk. What is the first line of offense to help with bee and mite infection. What is the technology used?

5. An update. Landline Bee Border Force June 2020 [9mins17secs]. Video This video is about the way the Northern Territory's apiary officer, Vicki Simlesa, is working to make sure mite infection is not within the Territory's borders or coming into the NT borders.

As you watch the video answer the following questions:

a. What does Vicki feed the bees before she checks the hives?

b. What is the name of the box that contains the Queen?

c. What is a sugar shake test? Describe in detail.

d. What sugar is used?

e. What is Vicki testing for?

f. How do Varroa mites destroy the hive? See below for extra information.

g. Where is the first contact or sentinel bee hive? Why are these first contact hives important?

h. How do you get a string out correctly?

i. How does Vicki see if there are any mites in her test?

6. Read the following information about the Varroa mites from the Department of Agriculture & Fisheries, Qld. Reading

7. Design and create Flash cards using Brainscape to show information about the Varroa mite; what Varroa mites do to hives, testing for the mite, and, why they have to be eradicated from Australia. Also, answer the question: Why are bees so important? Share online with a group of 3 - 4 students.

Brainscape Smart Flashcards
Price: Free
Developer: Bold Learning Solutions, Inc.

Screenshots

Chestnut Industry and Fungus

Primary Middle Secondary

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Critical and creative thinking

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Personal and social capability

Australian Curriculum General Capability: ICT Capability

Australian Curriculum Cross Curriculum Priorities: Sustainability Priority

1. Read the following article from Chestnuts Australia Inc Reading

2. Secondary only: you are to read the "Media Report" and the "Recommendations" from the full report (PDF).

Primary Middle Secondary - all of you are to investigate the Chestnut Blight (a fungus) and its effect on the Chestnut Industry from the following resources:

Agriculture Victoria	Department of Primary Industry NSW - factsheet
ABC Rural News 18 July 2014	Plant Health Australia
Australian Nut Conference 2015 (PDF)

3. Describe to a partner what you learnt!

Gathering all the information together, create a Prezi about Chestnut Blight and Biosecurity.

4. Put a personal touch on the presentation by describing how it must have been for the families whose trees had to be destroyed. What would they do now? How many years do they have to wait before recommencing? Or, do they start a new crop?

Bananas and Biosecurity

Secondary

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Personal and social capability

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Ethical Understanding

Philosophy

1.Look at the following video from Landline 28 April 2015 Video

Landline

Research the following questions:

What is the Panama Tropical Race 4 fungus?
What measures have been taken to combat the Panama Tropical Race 4 fungus?
What part does having the monoculture of banana variety - Williams Cavendish - play in the spread of this fungus

2. The effects on one family were devastating... Landline 9 October 2016. View the video: Video

Write down these effects.

What is the emotional toll that Bevan Robson describes?
When the Robson family was told there was "No sale" to the Association, what was Bevan's reaction?
What is Bevan's angst?
What would he do again if he faced an outbreak of Panama? Is this morally right?

Share your reflections with a partner.

3. What have other banana farmers done to stop the spread of the fungus? List their strategies.

How much has this cost for each farmer? Why do they go to so much trouble to eliminate this fungus?

4. What is the dilemna facing the Australian Banana Growers Council if another farm is infected with Panama?

5. View the following story: Banana Science on Landline 15 October 2016