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FrogID

Sections

Scouts Venturer Scouts Rover Scouts

Challenge Areas

Community Outdoors

Scout Method Elements

Learning By Doing Nature and the Outdoors

SPICES Growth Areas

Intellectual Physical

The Adventure

Scouts will learn about frogs and waterway health in this activity.

Plan

  1. Ask your Unit to consider the purpose of the activity, in the context of a local waterway.
    1. Why is the health of our waterways important?
    2. Which animals rely on the health of our waterways?
    3. How does pollution affect frogs?
    4. What are some of the threats that frogs face?
    5. Where does the water go once it leaves your local waterway?
    6. What is the history of the waterway? How did it form? Where does it start?
    7. What are the local Indigenous Australian and European connections to the waterway?
  2. This activity is best done at sunset.
  3. Choose which local waterways you will visit to observe frogs. Frogs prefer still water, so ponds and wetlands are best.
  4. Conduct your risk assessment – ensure everyone is prepared to be sun smart and safe around water.
  5. You will need a phone with the Australian Museum FrogID App downloaded. You can also join the Scouts Victoria FrogID group and compete with other Scouts for who can get the most frog recordings!

Do

  1. Sit by the edge of the waterway with your Unit. When it’s quiet, can you hear any wildlife around you?
  2. Don’t touch any frogs that you see, you could end up hurting them or even spread diseases from frog to frog.
  3. If you can hear frogs compare their croaking with the frog calls on the FrogID app, can you identify which frogs are in your waterway?
  4. Observe where the calls are coming from, are they in the middle of the waterway, in some bushes or on the bank of the waterway?
  5. Record the sound of the frogs croaking on the FrogID app and submit it to the experts, you may be surprised by what’s in your waterway!

Review

  1. Bring your Unit together to talk about what you observed
    1. Were there any frogs in. your waterway?
    2. How many frogs do you think there were?
    3. What did their calls sound like?
    4. Why do frogs call or croak?
  2. Consider further action your Unit could take.
    1. Is there anything your Unit could do to make the waterway healthier?
    2. How could your Unit support frogs in your waterway?
    3. Are there any volunteer groups looking after the waterway or surrounding habitat?