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Garden Wildlife Week Data Challenge 

This week is Garden Wildlife Week and your mission is to find out the top 10 creatures where you live! 

Your challenge is to go out and about to collect data on whatever wildlife you can find in your street, park or garden. You can make a simple chart to collect and record all of your data and then think about how you can present your information.

You’re likely to find a lot of insects… but which type?

Wherever there are flowers or flowering weeds you’ll often find a lot of flying insects. Weeds are actually wildflowers that self-seed and grow naturally wherever the seeds land and they are a rich source of food for many insects.

Don’t forget the type of insects that love rotten leaves or wood. Or can you dig up a piece of earth and look for worms? If you live near a pond or water, have a think about what you might find there. Don’t forget to look up in the sky and in the trees for birds! 

Before you start looking, you’ll need to ask yourself a few questions

Where will you look? 👀 Here at Maths on Toast we say that maths is everywhere! Wildlife is everywhere too.. but don’t just look in the usual places. What about looking in the cracks in the pavement? Under stones or plant pots? Under wood or old leaves in the park or in your garden?  

What will you find? 🔎 You can predict what type of wildlife you think you will find in each place and which you will find the most of. Draw a picture or write the name and predict how many you think you’ll find.  

Next step, make a simple chart

Create one column for the name (or quick drawing) of the wildlife and another column to record how many you find.  

Think about how you plan to note down your findings quickly when you’re out. Will you draw a dot for each one you find, use a tally system or write the actual numbers? 

You’re ready to go! 

Set yourself a time limit of how long you’ll look and keep it the same for each place you are looking in. Keep looking for longer if you want but keep the length of time the same for the recording of your data.

Your final step

When you’ve collected all your data, think about how you wish to present your findings. Keep it in your columns? Draw and colour in shapes to represent how many of each creature you found? Draw the actual creature – one huge ant could represent every 10 ants you counted. What ideas to present your data can you think of? 

We’d love to see your wildlife data! Share a picture of your chart with us on TwitterFacebook or Instagram tagging @mathsontoast or email it to us at info@mathsontoast.org.uk