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Year 3 - Science Exploring the Reef Year 3 Australian Science Curriculum Focus Recognising questions that can be investigated scientifically and investigating them. Students investigate and make links between different features of the Great Barrier Reef and the specific needs of living things. Students develop an understanding of: • The Great Barrier Reef – its features and its importance • Living and non-living things on the Great Barrier Reef • Survival needs of marine life • Features of marine animals • Relationships between animals, plants and living and non-living things • Threats to the Great Barrier Reef Inquiry questions for the unit: • What is the Great Barrier Reef? • What are living and non-living things? • What are the survival needs and features of marine life on the Great Barrier Reef? • What are some of the relationships between animals, plants and living and non-living things on the Great Barrier Reef? • Why is the health of marine life on the Great Barrier Reef so important? • What are threats to the Great Barrier Reef? • Are there ways the Great Barrier Reef can be protected? Year 3 Science — Exploring the Reef - Version 0.2 2 Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Year 3 Unit Overview — Exploring the Reef School name Unit title Duration of unit Exploring the Reef Approximately five weeks (could be extended out to a term- long unit, approximately eight weeks, by extending out some activities to explore the concepts more in depth. See notes in unit.) Unit outline Year 3 Australian Science Curriculum Focus – Recognising questions that can be investigated scientifically and investigating them. Students investigate and make links between different features of the Great Barrier Reef and the specific needs of living things. Students develop an understanding of: The Great Barrier Reef – its features and its importance Living and non-living things on the Great Barrier Reef Survival needs of marine life Features of marine animals Relationships between animals, plants and living and non-living things Threats to the Great Barrier Reef Inquiry questions for the unit: What is the Great Barrier Reef? What are living and non-living things? What are the survival needs and features of marine life on the Great Barrier Reef? What are some of the relationships between animals, plants and living and non-living things on the Great Barrier Reef? Why is the health of marine life on the Great Barrier Reef so important? What are the current threats to the Great Barrier Reef? Are there ways the Great Barrier Reef can be protected? Year 3 Level Description – Between Years 3 to 6, students develop their understanding of a range of systems operating at different time and geographic scales. In Year 3, students observe heat and its effects on solids and liquids and begin to develop an understanding of energy flows through simple systems. In observing day and night, they develop an appreciation of regular and predictable cycles. Students order their observations by grouping and classifying. In classifying things as living or non-living they begin to recognise that classifications are not always easy to define or apply. They begin to quantify their observations to enable comparison, and learn more sophisticated ways of identifying and representing relationships, including the use of tables and graphs to identify trends. They use their understanding of relationships between components of simple systems to make predictions. Year 3 Achievement Standard – By the end of Year 3 students describe how they can use science investigations to respond to questions and identify where people use science knowledge in their lives. They collect and present data in a way that helps to answer their questions and use their experiences to make predictions. Students describe features common to living things. They use their knowledge of the movement of the Earth, materials and the behaviour of heat to suggest explanations for everyday observations. Year 3 Science – Exploring the Reef - Version 0.2 1 Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Teacher Notes Unit overview The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) Exploring the Reef Teaching Unit is a science based Year 3 unit of work. The content descriptors for this unit are from the 2011 Australian Science Curriculum (www.australiancurriculum.edu.au). Following the inquiry based 5Es approach to teaching science, the unit is based on the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) expectations of a minimum of one hour per week of science lessons for Year 3 students. Each lesson is of approximately 45 minutes duration, with some lessons requiring more time to allow further depth of study or time for excursions. The nature of science investigations is to follow the line of student inquiry to promote and encourage students to think like scientists. Teachers may find that students will need, or want, to complete investigations other than those suggested in the teaching strategies outlined in this unit. Students are to be encouraged to follow their own line of inquiry, and in the case where students do this, the teaching strategies and resources outlined in this unit may be used as a guide to supplement the student directed investigations. The overall unit or the individual lessons could be extended or shortened to cater for individual classes as deemed necessary by the class teacher. Teachers will need to allow time to prepare for the lessons prior to teaching each lesson. Aim of the unit The lessons are structured to build students' knowledge of the Great Barrier Reef to reach the final goal of being able to make links between different features of the Great Barrier Reef and the specific needs of living things. Students will be able to identify a range of features of living and non-living things found on the Great Barrier Reef and explain the relationships between those things. Students will also research threats to the Great Barrier Reef and identify ways to care for the Reef. The health of individual marine life on the Great Barrier Reef is vital to the health of the overall Reef (for more information on the Great Barrier Reef see below in ‘Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Information’ and also www.gbrmpa.gov.au). Teaching students about living and non-living things on the Great Barrier Reef will build their environmental knowledge and encourage their understanding of sustainability and stewardship. The main premise of this unit is coastal development and climate change, which are two of the Key Focus Areas of the Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report 2009 (see www.gbrmpa.gov.au for more information on the Outlook Report 2009). GBRMPA encourages teachers to follow the main aim of Reef Guardianship – to be stewards of the environment. Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Information o The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park: . is the largest coral reef system in the world . has 2900 reefs . has 600 continental islands . has 300 coral cays . covers 344 000km2 . is approximately 2300km in length . extends from the northern tip of Queensland south to just north of Bundaberg . is between 60km and 250km in width . has an average depth of water of 35m in the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon . is one of the largest marine protected areas in the world (about 344 000km2) . includes the air above and the earth beneath the sea. was created in 1975 under legislation called the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975. Year 3 Science – Exploring the Reef - Version 0.2 2 Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority o Types of habitats in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park: . Only six percent of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park consists of coral reefs. The rest is made up of seagrass, mangroves, sand, algal and sponge gardens, inter-reefal communities and other habitats. It is home to: o 1500 species of fish o 360 species of hard coral o one third of the world’s soft corals o 5000-8000 species of molluscs (e.g. shells) o 400-500 species of marine algae o 600 species of echinoderms (e.g. starfish, sea urchins) o 17 species of sea snakes o 22 species of seabirds and 32 species of shorebirds that live and breed on the islands o 13 000 dugong (Australia’s entire dugong population is about 90 000) o six species of marine turtles, all listed as threatened (including the endemic flatback marine turtle) o 30 species of cetaceans (whales and dolphins). o Importance of a healthy Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report 2009, www.gbrmpa.gov.au) The Great Barrier Reef is a national and international icon, famous for its beauty and vast scale. It is the largest and best known coral reef ecosystem in the world. The reefs of the Great Barrier Reef (almost 3000 in total) represent about ten percent of all the coral reef areas in the world. Virtually all groups of marine plants and animals are abundantly represented in the Great Barrier Reef, with thousands of different species living there. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is a multiple use marine park, supporting a wide range of uses including commercial tourism, defence activities, fishing, ports and shipping, recreation, scientific research and Indigenous traditional use. It brings billions of dollars into Australia’s economy each year and supports more than 50 000 jobs. Within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, a number of activities such as mining and oil drilling are strictly prohibited. There is careful management of all other activities such as fishing, commercial marine tourism and shipping operations. A range of measures are employed to manage the various uses of the Marine Park and to protect its values. For example, a Zoning Plan defines what activities can occur in which locations, both to protect the marine environment and to separate potentially conflicting activities.

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