Dune Battle

Co-created with Biology Teacher and sand dune restoration project Dynamic Dunescapes, Dune Battle is a Top Trumps-style activity designed to tackle teaching botanical biodiversity in the dunes through gameplay. It is ideally suited for KS4-5 biology and geography students, and can assist in learning species identification in the classroom prior to field trips and practical projects.

Students can play Dune Battle in the classroom to also learn more about succession and indicator species for nutrients or nitrogen deposition in sand dune plant species. Species profiles contain ecological information as well as images, the common and scientific name, and a fun fact about each species.

This resource is available as a PDF and should be printed double-sided. Four cards are on each A4 page, so pages can be cut once printed. Instructions are included on one of the first cards, as well as context as to why these species and restoring sand dune habitats are important.

Coastal sand dunes in the UK and Europe are currently highly threatened habitats for biodiversity loss, due to a loss of bare sand habitat and dynamic processes in which many of the floristically diverse pioneer plant species are specialisted to live in.