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Reef Communities

Middle School & Senior Secondary

In this Reef HQ Education program, students investigate the highly diverse and amazing reef communities found on the Great Barrier Reef. Students will gain a fuller appreciation for the complex ecological structures, interrelationships, adaptations, biotic and abiotic requirements of reef communities.

Curriculum Links

Completing this Reef HQ Education Program will develop students' ability to:

  • Make generalisations about the types of interaction which take place between living and non-living parts of the environment;
  • Collect information about the structure and function of living things and relate structure and function to survival;
  • Evaluate the consequences of interactions between the living and non-living parts of the environment;
  • Examine and prepare scenarios that describe the potential long-term effects of changes in biodiversity caused by human action on ecosystems;
  • Explain why certain reef creatures live together in specific areas of the reef;
  • Organise data into a meaningful and useful forms; and
  • Appreciate the benefit that certain reef creatures bring to the reef community.

The following unit includes suggestions for activities that can be completed before and after your Reef HQ visit.

Reef HQ Visit

This teacher resource is linked to a class visit to Reef HQ. The Reef HQ visit will enable students to:

  • Observe a diverse array of reef ecosystems;
  • Observe reef creatures and their peculiar behaviours;
  • Observe reef creature interrelationships within the reef community;
  • Investigate some of the structural adaptations that some of the reef creatures possess;
  • Appreciate the varying ecological levels within reef communities;
  • Understand that ecosystems are cyclic in nature; and
  • Investigate the connection between the living and non-living components of the reef environment.

Video & Image Library
movie  WOW Factors

Attached Documents

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Diversity - Challenge Activity
File size: 803k
Field Sketch - Challenge Activity
File size: 736k
Food Glorious Food - Challenge Activity
File size: 1341k
Food Web - Challenge Activity
File size: 951k
Interconnection - Challenge Activity
File size: 1376k
Reef Communities - Teaching Unit
File size: 480k
Reef Diversity - Challenge Activity
File size: 2666k
Reef Relationships - Challenge Activity
File size: 733k