Operation Spider
Operation Spider was a Citizen Science research project we ran in conjunction with radio station 891 ABC Adelaide, the SA Museum and the Department for Environment and Natural Resources.
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| See Operation Spider on YouTube... |
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| Click here to find out more about School Projects |
See Operation Spider on Channel 10's SCOPE program... |
How to be involved
There were a number of ways to get involved with Operation Spider... and the resources are still available...
1. Community survey and questionnaire
You may have heard about Operation Spider on ABC Local Radio in South Australia. In 2010 we ran a state-wide survey in which all South Australians could participate and send in data about spiders via an online questionnaire. The survey is now closed and we are analysing the data. However, you can still use the resouces available below.
2. School projects
As part of the Operation Spider program, we have put together a broad range of educational materials for primary and middle school classes. We have developed an Interactive Teaching Sequence and support materials to make it easy and interesting for classes to be involved. Click here to find out more about the School Projects...
3. Poetry competition
We ran a poetry competition in conjunction with the Operation Spider survey. The competition winners are now available; click here to go to the ABC webpage
4. Join the facebook page
The Operation Spider Facebook page is at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Operation-Spider/140054116022916?ref=sgm
5. Watch the YouTube video
See Operation Spider on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIO3Mykg_6g
6. The Festival of the Spider (project launch)
The launch was held at the South Australian Museum on the morning of September the 1st. It was the launch of Biodiversity Month and the launch of Operation Spider. Over 500 people attended, to see spider talks and spider presentations, and to meet scientists and spiders. 891 ABC Adelaide broadcast live with Matthew Abraham and David Bevan. The program was:
| 8:30 | Live broadcast begins 891 ABC Adelaide's Mornings program |
| 9:45 | Nice legs, pity about the fangs presentation by Chris Daniels and Steve Donnellan |
| 10:30 | Spiders: Venom and Envenoming presentation by Julian White |
| 11:45 | Spider poetry reading by Jude Aquilina |
| All morning | Meet the Spiders A spider display hosted by:
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| 12 & 1:30 | Tours of Biodiversity Gallery |
| And much more, including a visit from some SACA redbacks | |
Useful spider resources
If you like spiders or want to know more about them, you may find these resources useful:
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Spider images from the Barbara Hardy Institute: click here...
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Web2spider guide (a guide to help identify web-building spiders), available from the Australian Museum at: http://australianmuseum.net.au/document/Original-Web2spider-guide
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Web2spider guide for schools (a modified version of the above guide, available from the Australian Museum at: http://australianmuseum.net.au/document/Web2spider-toolkit-for-schools
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"Play with a spider" game available at: http://www.onemotion.com/flash/spider/
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Learn about invertebrates from the Tasmanian Government, available at: http://resources.education.tas.gov.au/item/edres/a601b353-b66a-e3b4-4ddf-5a44c73c36ee/2/FindOutMoreSet.zip/inverts.swf
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The "bug catcher" game from Museum Victoria, available at: http://museumvictoria.com.au/bugs/game/content/bugcatcher.swf
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Invertebrate key from CSIRO at: http://www.ento.csiro.au/education/key/couplet_01.html
For more information about any of our Citizen Science projects, please contact Philip Roetman.
This is an initiative of the Council of Australian Museum Directors, and is funded with assistance from the Science Connections Program within the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. Find out about other funded projects at The Australian Biodiversity 2010 website at http://www.biodiversity2010.org.au/