The Bush Blitz Adventure Portal is a video conferencing education program designed to bring Bush Blitz straight into your classroom directly from the field.

Bush Blitz aims to teach and inspire your students through discovery of Australia's unique biodiversity, including the amazing plants and animals uncovered during expeditions to some of Australia's wildest and most remote locations.

More about Bush Blitz

The Adventure Portal program is advertised to schools around Australia approximately two months before each Bush Blitz expedition.

Program Outline

Cost	Free
Year Level	All
Group Size	No limit – you are welcome to combine classes at your school to connect to this program
Duration	○ Pre-conference video on YouTube ○ Video conference during expedition on Zoom: ~30 minutes
Availability	TBA
Connection Requirements	Internet connection with access to YouTube and Zoom
What's Provided	○ Background information on the Bush Blitz location ○ Pre-conference video from the Bush Blitz location ○ Video conference with one or more scientists from the field, where students can ask questions ○ Associated lesson plans linked to the Australian curriculum

Expeditions

Little Desert National Park VIC | October 2019

Cape Range National Park WA | June 2019

RV Investigator Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) Islands | July-August 2021

Bookings

Book your class into this program using the Google form.

Program Timeline

1. Information and pre-conference video 

A short video to show your class introducing the location, the scientists attending, what their expertise is, and what field techniques they will be using; as well as some background information about the location and local ecology.

2. Questions submitted 

Participating schools will be required to submit questions from their students after watching the pre-conference video. Questions will be reviewed by Bush Blitz before given to the scientist. Depending on time limit and appropriateness, not all questions may get answered.

(We require prior submission of questions, to avoid double-ups, difficulty hearing through computer microphones, and relevance to the scientist). 

3. Video conference

During your video conference with the scientist, we will introduce each student to ask their question, and the scientist will answer - similar in style to Q&A (ABC television show). The scientist will also aim to show some of the specimens they've collected.

All videos and resources will remain available online for anyone to access at any time after the expedition at no cost.

Requirements and Expectations 

Requirements

• You are an Australian school teacher
• Have access to internet and internet permissions at the specified time slot for Zoom video conferencing and YouTube during class time
• Understand that not all students' questions may get answered. This will depend on: appropriateness, relevance, time limit and ability of scientist

Other Expectations

• Complete an evaluation survey on the program so we can understand how to improve the program in the future
• Understand that this is operating from a remote location; we do our best to ensure connectivity allows the videos to be uploaded in time, however it is recommended to have a backup lesson in place in the event of technical failures