Keep this beat light. Do not hand out hoops or open the audit sheets yet. The hook is curiosity about impact, not the method.

Take three or four quick answers. Accept all as starting ideas. Do not judge whether the action "worked" yet. Typical clues by action type: more bees or flower visits (pollinator patch); more kinds of minibeasts (bug hotel); more plant kinds (wild corner); bird seed still dry and accessible under a feeder (if the class built a bird feeder).

Project link: point briefly at the action the class built earlier in this project (pollinator patch, bug hotel, wild corner, bird feeder, or whatever they chose) so everyone remembers what is being checked today.

Misconception to head off later, not now: "If we like our action, it must have helped." Today's work is about evidence, not hope alone.

Key concepts (teacher reference)

Keep the board light: name the three terms in one short pass with one concrete class example, then move straight into the group decision. Fuller definitions stay here for you.

Modelled cycle (say this aloud once, about 45 seconds, before groups decide): "I wonder if our wild corner holds more kinds of living things now. I predict we will find more plant kinds than on the audit because we left the grass long. I will use the same hoop in the same corner and count kinds the same way. I observed eight plant kinds today and five on the audit sheet. That looks like a rise — or if the numbers were flat or lower, I would still treat that as useful evidence and ask what to try next. One survey is only a first clue."

Group decision (main work of this step): each group must leave able to name (1) one thing they will re-measure based on their action and audit, and (2) one thing that stays the same for a fair comparison. Examples of measures: kinds of flowering plants, kinds of minibeasts, pollinator visits in two minutes, whether bird seed is still dry and accessible under a feeder. Examples of what stays the same: spot, hoop size, time window, ID method.

Fast pre-exit gate (protect the outdoor window): do not cold-call every group in full. Use a rapid stand-and-show: each group holds up two fingers when ready (measure + control named). Spot-check two or three groups aloud (about 30 seconds each), then a quick "thumbs up if your group has both" sweep so stragglers get a peer prompt. Total public gate: about 2 minutes. Do not leave until every group has both, but keep the check brisk.

Fair-test reminder: change nothing about the method except that time has passed and the action is in place.

If the action cannot be re-surveyed outdoors today (weather, access): groups set up a clear monitoring plan on paper (what, where, when, how) and use any safe indoor check they can (photo comparison, seed still present, structure still standing) plus the original audit numbers for the presentation. Still treat it as evidence work, not a skip.

Key questions: What did your audit actually count? What would make today's count unfair? What would count as "helped" for your action?

Before this step

• Pupils need their Investigation Journal pages from the audit earlier in this project (the biodiversity counts) and a clear space (or the provided results page) for today's after-counts, comparison and next step.
• Action areas should be in or next to the school grounds with a short walk from the classroom. Set outdoor boundaries and a return signal before you leave the room.
• Each group takes: hoop or string quadrat, magnifier, ID sheet, clipboard, pencil, journal.
• Protect the outdoor window: aim for about 12–14 minutes of counting on site, with the rest of the 20 minutes for exit, short travel, return of living things, handwashing and re-entry.

One-adult outdoor management (required)

Many Irish primary classes have one adult outdoors. Do not send groups to distant corners of the grounds out of sight or hearing. Choose one of these plans before you leave the room:

• Single zone (preferred): all active groups work inside one agreed strip or corner where you can see and hear every group at once. If original action sites are scattered, bring groups to the nearest safe shared zone that still matches their audit habitat type, or re-survey only the actions that sit inside that zone today.
• Paired sites: at most two neighbouring spots within calling distance; you stand between them.
• Second adult available: split into two supervised clusters only if both adults stay with their cluster.
• Sequential groups: if sites cannot share one zone, send half the class with you while the other half completes indoor journal prep (audit numbers ready, prediction restated), then swap. Keep on-site counting viable inside the 20-minute step by shortening each wave's outdoor window rather than running unsupervised groups.

Never leave a group unsupervised at a remote feeder, hedge or far pitch corner.

Printable ID sheet content (one double-sided sheet per group)

Print the lists below exactly as written. Pupils use them only as a naming aid; they do not need every name.

Side A — Minibeasts (common in Irish school grounds)

• Card 1 — Woodlouse: grey, many legs; scurries or rolls under logs and pots
• Card 2 — Earthworm: long, soft, pink or brown; in soil
• Card 3 — Snail: soft body with a spiral shell
• Card 4 — Slug: soft body, no shell
• Card 5 — Spider: eight legs; on webs, leaves or walls
• Card 6 — Ant: small, six legs; often in lines
• Card 7 — Beetle: hard wing cases, six legs
• Card 8 — Ladybird: round beetle; often red with black spots
• Card 9 — Caterpillar: soft body, many legs; on leaves
• Card 10 — Millipede: long body, many pairs of legs; often curls when touched

Side B — Plants and flowers

• Card 11 — Grass: long thin green blades
• Card 12 — Daisy: white petals, yellow centre
• Card 13 — Dandelion: bright yellow flower, jagged leaves
• Card 14 — Clover: three round leaflets; pink or white flowers
• Card 15 — Buttercup: shiny yellow petals
• Card 16 — Plantain: leaves in a rosette; tall flower spike
• Card 17 — Dock: large broad leaves
• Card 18 — Nettle: toothed leaves (do not touch; stings)
• Card 19 — Ivy: shiny climbing leaves
• Card 20 — Bramble: thorny stems, lobed leaves

During the re-survey

Circulate within the single zone. Ask: "Are you counting in the same way as the audit?" "Is that a different kind, or another of the same?" "What are you seeing that you did not see before?"

What "good" looks like: groups match the audit method, tally kinds or visits carefully, and separate what they saw from what they think it means.

If numbers go down or stay the same: that is still useful evidence. Say so warmly. An unexpected result is data, not failure. Possible real reasons: season, weather, time of day, action still settling, action in the wrong spot. Capture these for the presentation.

Safety: wash hands after handling soil and minibeasts; return animals where found; mind nettles and brambles; no tasting plants; stay inside the agreed boundary and within sight of the teacher.

If a group finishes early: they sketch one extra observation of the action itself (condition of the bug hotel, height of plants) rather than inventing a new unrelated count.

Interactive on the IWB

Open the data-recorder interactive. Two columns appear: What we counted and Number. Enter about four rows so one clear before/after pair (or two pairs) sits as separate bars, for example:

• Flower kinds (before)
• Flower kinds (after)
• Minibeast kinds (before)
• Minibeast kinds (after)

Use real tallies groups call out. You do not need every group on the chart; pick one or two clear paired rows so the class can see change or no change quickly. Then show the bar chart. The last number column becomes one bar per row, so paired before/after rows make the comparison readable.

Do not promise a side-by-side double bar for each item — this recorder draws one bar per row. That is why before and after are separate rows.

Split the ten minutes: about four minutes entering rows and reading the chart together; about five minutes for pupils to record comparison, evidence claim and one next step on the journal page; keep a minute spare for transitions. Keep the board sample to one or two pairs so writing time is real, not residual. Groups whose rows are not on the board still use their own tallies in the journal.

Science talk while the chart is up:

• Which bars grew, shrank or stayed flat?
• Is that what you predicted?
• What did we see (the numbers) versus what we think it means (the action helped / needs longer / needs a tweak)?
• Flat or lower numbers are still valid evidence.

Journal support at the point of writing (say aloud and leave on the board):

• Comparison: "Before we had ___ ; after we had ___."
• Evidence: "The numbers show ___ / do not yet show a clear change."
• Next step: "Next we would ___ because ___."

Do not describe boxes or columns on the journal page itself.

Nature of STEM weave: this is what ecologists do after a habitat action: measure again, compare with the baseline survey, and decide what to try next. Link lightly to the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan idea that actions are checked, not only launched.

Default structure for a full 6th class (six to eight groups): paired swap first (about 4–5 minutes total, one minute each way), then three volunteer or cold-called groups share with the whole class (about one minute each). That is the main plan, not a fallback. Use a visible timer.

Listen for and revoice:

• Clear before-and-after numbers or observations (evidence), not only "it looked nicer".
• Honest results when nothing changed yet.
• Next steps that follow from the evidence (move the feeder, add water, survey again in a month, plant a second patch).

Peer listen prompt after a whole-class share: "What evidence did that group use?" Fold the watching class in by questioning; do not set a separate desk task.

If you have fewer than five groups: every group can present to the whole class within the time.

Success look-fors: names the action, gives at least one before and one after fact, states a next step linked to the result.