Teaching Live from Groote Eylandt

It takes a special kind of teacher to enlist in a Bush Blitz TeachLive expedition: camping; long days hiking or wading through marshland; catching arachnids, lizards and insects; and all the while managing to remotely teach students back in the classroom. The latest instalment of Bush Blitz TeachLive sent five Northern Territorian teachers to stunning, undisturbed areas of Groote Eylandt -- the whole of which and its surrounding waters, lie within the Anindilyakwa Indigenous Protected Area. The archipelago from which its largest island takes its name, lies about 50km off the east coast of Arnhem Land, and is an important biodiversity zone, where endangered species can dwell in safety and scientists can gauge the impacts of climate change. Two of the teachers who attended, Will Forman and Tim Reilly, are from local schools on the island, and were both keen to learn more about the ecology of their region and to grow their knowledge of the area's biodiversity. Veronica Wiley (Darwin), Jenni Frank (Alice Springs) and Con Costa (Nhulunbuy) rounded out the final five successful and highly enthusiastic applicants. The expedition was designed with the intent of following up on prior botanical, entomological, reptile and mollusc studies undertaken in the area, as well as trapping an elusive Pseudantechinus (otherwise known as a "False Antechinus"), a small, mouse-sized marsupial, which had previously only been captured on camera on Groote Eylandt. This article provides highlights from the teachers' time on the Bush Blitz Groote expedition including some of the species they identified and documented. TeachLive is a Bush Blitz collaboration with the Australian Science Teachers Association (ASTA), which enables teachers to participate in these survey expeditions. Bush Blitz TeachLive is designed to build the capacity of teachers to facilitate high-quality learning on environmental and sustainability issues using real-world research projects.