Our Great Barrier Reef

Main Idea

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This unit introduces young students to the Great Barrier Reef as a place people use for resources, work, recreation and leisure. Students at this age readily identify with favorite places to play and explore. Initially beaches, coastal areas, a public aquarium or marine discovery centre serve as a focus for class activities as access to the Great Barrier Reef isn't always possible. Students investigate the natural and human components of the Great Barrier Reef as well as the groups involved with the use, protection and conservation of the Reef. These groups may include Federal Government, State Government, private organisations, service, community and volunteer groups. In examining the Great Barrier Reef, students can also be given a preliminary introduction to the ways the Great Barrier Reef is a natural and protected landscape of significance.

Key Understandings

• Nearly all communities have places of particular importance and value;
• Different places are for different types of use;
• The Great Barrier Reef has a range of natural and built places and spaces; and
• People value the Great Barrier Reef in different ways.
  

Focus Questions

• How and why is the Great Barrier Reef important to different groups of people?
• What parts are natural and what parts are made by people? and
• Why and how do people cooperate to care for the Great Barrier Reef?

Key Terms

Anchoring, animals, behaviour, birds, boating, care, colours, conserve,  corals, diving, dugong, dolphin, environment, equipment, facilities, features, fields, fish, fishing, garden, grasses, human-made, leisure, litter, local, look after, maintenance, national park, native plants, nature, ocean, ranger, pollution, protect, reef-walking, river, rubbish, safety, sailing, sea, signs, snorkelling, tourist, trawlers, tracks, turtle-watching, visiting, water, whale-watching, work.

Key Learning Areas

• Society and Environment;
• Science;
• English;
• Mathematics; and
• The Arts.

Key Competencies

• Collecting, analysing and organising information;
• Communication ideas and information;
• Planning and organising activities;
• Working with others in teams;
• Using mathematical ideas and techniques;
• Solving problems; and
• Using technology.

Outcomes

The unit focuses on the following core learning outcomes from the Years 1-10 SOSE and Science Syllabuses:

SOSE

In Place and Space:

1.1  Students match relationships between themselves and an environment.
1.2  Students make simple connections between elements of simple ecosystems.
1.4 Students organise and present information about places that are important to them.
1.5 Students describe the relationships between personal actions and environmentally friendly strategies in places.
1.7 Students design a game to match animals, people or plants to places.

In Culture and Identity:

1.3  Students share an understanding of how diverse families meet human needs of food, clothing and shelter.
1.4  Students gather information and record information about traditions, celebrations and cultural changes.
1.5  Students describe, draw, or enact how an important event might be perceived from another's perspective.

In Systems, Resources and Power

1.1  Students understand that the environment provides resources that meet our needs and they can conserve resources.
1.6  Students enact consequences of following and not following rules of familiar places.

Science

In Life and Living:

1.2  Students group living things in different ways based on observable features.
1.6  Students observe and describe components of environments.

Attached Documents

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Our Great Barrier Reef - Teaching Unit
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