The biodiversity on Iceland is far less than anywhere else in warmer areas on earth. The nature on Iceland is fragile due to it's northern position on the globe. One advantage is that it is easy to learn about Icelandic species. The only original land mammal is the arctic fox. All other landmammals were imported one time or other. Most of them we can see close to our school in the Family park and Zoo. http://www.mu.is/

Birds are the main species on Iceland, besides fish and mammals in the sea. The national publisher of teaching material Námsgagnastofnun has fun links to learn all about animals on Iceland. http://www1.nams.is/landspendyr/index.php and http://www1.nams.is/husdyr/ and http://www1.nams.is/fuglar/

We concentrated on two birds, the falcon and snow-ptarmigan. Because Christmas is coming the hunting of snow ptarmigan is very popular. Many people eat ptarmigan as a traditional meal. In the old days poor people went hunting to have something special for X-mas. Nowadays it cost quite a lot to hunt. One needs expensive permits, the area´s where it is allowed to hunt are far out of town, and one can only hunt for family and friends about 6-7 birds for each hunter. It is always the question if the ptarmigan should be protected or hunted. It's major natural enemy the falcon completely depends on the ptarmigan and is since long a protected species on Iceland. We watched a documentary with the kids about these birds and introduced the topic with short lectures and games. rjupa1.pptx and rjupa2.pptx We used the News and Views Method to encourage discussion and critical thinking. Especially the views of all kind of experts made our student think and make up their mind about the question: Do you want ptarmigan for Christmas?