University campuses provide an accessible, cheap and useful means of teaching ecology to undergraduate students. We describe a short campus-based activity that was trialed in the 2015- 16 academic year to engage first year physical geography students with both ecology and urban ecology. Students undertook a 40-minute investigation of the campus to identify niches and ecosystems and were asked to relate their findings to previous lecture material. Overall, the activity was enjoyed by students and considered useful by both students and staff in supporting students' engagement with ecology.