Out & About in the Community
Main idea:
This unit is designed to increase student's awareness of the features of the area in which they live (the Great Barrier Reef and coastal zone). By investigating places and spaces and natural and human made features familiar to them, students begin to understand the relationships that exist between elements of systems such as water and transport. Through observation and listening to stories about the Great Barrier Reef, students are encouraged to broaden their focus beyond their immediate environment to value the features and services the Great Barrier Reef provides to communities. Students are also introduced to the concept of community as a way of understanding common needs and purposes and to see that we are all connected to the Reef. These concepts are brought together in the final activities where students create media texts, displays or models about the Great Barrier Reef and consider their place as part of the Reef community and how they can make it a better place in which to live.
Key Understandings
- Nearly all communities have places of particular importance and value
- Different areas are for different types of use
- The Great Barrier Reef has a range of natural and built places and spaces
- 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?
- Why and how do people 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.
Learning Areas
- Society and Environment
- Science
- English
- Mathematics
- The Arts.
Core Learning Outcomes
The unit focuses on the following core learning outcomes from the Years 1-10 SOSE, Arts and Science Syllabuses:
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.
2.4 Students use and make simple maps to describe local and global features.
In Culture and Identity:
1.1 Students compare ideas and feelings about stories from different cultures.
1.3 Students gather information and record information about traditions, celebrations and cultural changes.
1.4 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.
2.2 Students crate a representation of various people and resources involved in the production and consumption of familiar goods and services.
In Life and Living:
1.2 Students group living things in different ways based on observable features.
1.5 Students observe and describe components of environments.
In Media:
2.1 Students select and combine images, sounds & words in sequence to create media texts for audiences.
2.2 Students use display techniques to present media to a familiar audience.
2.3 Students identify different ways in which representations are created in media forms.
In the Visual Arts:
2.1 Students make images and objects by selecting and manipulating elements and additional concepts.
2.2 Students select and arrange images and objects for personal display.
2.3 Students identify elements and additional concepts to interpret images and objects from a variety of contexts.
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
- Using technology.
Planning Considerations
Some tips to help the unit run smoothly:
- Read through the unit thoroughly and highlight activities you think are most relevant to your students
- Consider which of the key learning outcomes from your State Syllabus are most likely to "come out" of the unit
- Gather together key resources used in the unit, eg photographs, picture books, activity sheets etc. (see resources page)
- You may wish to write to parents informing them of the topic, sharing the understandings for the unit and inviting any assistance and resources
- Organise a videoconference with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, an excursion to a public aquarium or Marine Discovery Centre
- Organise a learning log for each student.
Attached Documents
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OutnAboutintheCommunity Out and About in the Community
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