Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Part A: Activating prior knowledge

40 minutes

Part B: Who is helping our oceans?

45 minutes

Part C: Who else is helping our oceans?

15 minutes

Reflection

Part A. Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Begin by writing the following question on the board:

Invite students to brainstorm answers to this question and record these answers on the board.

Ensure the following topics are covered in your brainstorm:

Humans impact oceans through:
- Producing waste on land that ends up in the ocean, including chemicals and other pollutants
- Dumping waste into the oceans, including chemicals and other pollutants
- Overfishing and unsustainable fishing practices, resulting in dramatic declines in fish populations, harmful bycatch and discarded nets that trap marine life
- Unsustainable development along coastlines and even inland (e.g. mining or agriculture) affecting breeding sites and habitats for many marine species
- Ocean change, resulting in increased storm events causing damage to coastal habitats and reefs, rising ocean temperatures leading to coral bleaching events, and increased absorption of CO₂ leading to ocean acidification.

Once complete, explain to students that yes, some of the news about how humans impact the ocean can make us all feel sad or angry. However, the good news is that there are many people who are working hard to help our oceans and the organisms that live there.

Part B. Who is Helping Our Oceans?

Step 1.

Explain to students that they will now be looking at how two Australian scientists are working to protect marine species.

Explain to students that the two scientists are:

Jennifer Lavers
Jennifer is an applied conservation biologist who has a passion for shorebirds. Through her work she studies the impacts of humans on shorebirds, and as seen in the video below she looks at how plastic waste in the oceans is affecting shorebirds.
Christine Hof
Christine is a marine scientist who works to save marine turtles and dugongs. The video below shows some of the work that Christine does in her day, studying the impacts of humans on marine turtles.

What does each of these scientists do? Working in pairs, invite students to spend five minutes researching the answers to the following two questions:

What is an applied conservation biologist and what do they do?
What is a marine scientist and what do they do?

Students should write their answers in the spaces provided on the Student Worksheet and share their answers with the class. Suggested answers below:

What is an applied conservation biologist, and what do they do?
Conservation biologists are concerned with protecting and sustaining our natural resources, such as air, water, land and wildlife. Conservation biologists may need to integrate knowledge from a range of areas (including biological sciences, natural resource management, social sciences and economics) so that they can develop appropriate strategies for looking after species, their habitats and ecosystems.
What is a marine scientist, and what do they do?
Marine scientists work to research, analyse and forecast scenarios affecting the oceans, coastal areas and marine life. They study the sea and how it interacts with the land, the atmosphere and the sea floors. They then use this information to make predictions about environmental changes, inform governments and policymakers, and encourage greater environmental protection for the areas and organisms they study.

Step 2.

The next step is to share the following clips with the class. As students watch, invite them to record any information that relates to the roles that these two scientists have (e.g. what tasks they do, what skills they need, what they need to know) and any information that they find surprising or interesting.

Who is Jennifer Lavers? (https://vimeo.com/1056609385/c234845474)

The importance of marine turtles (https://vimeo.com/1056609220/37e6d8c08f)

Step 3.

Now break the class into an even number of groups or pairs. Assign groups with either Jennifer or Christine, ensuring that you have an equal number of groups assigned to each scientist.

Each group needs to discuss and answer the questions relevant to their group (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Jennifer

What does Jennifer do that helps us understand more about human impacts on the environment?
What are some of the tasks that Jennifer performs in her job?
How do these help her understand more about shorebirds?
How do these help her understand more about human impacts on our environment?
What did you find most interesting about what Jennifer does?
What did you find most interesting about what Jennifer says?

Christine

What does Christine do that helps us understand more about human impacts on the environment?
What are some of the tasks that Christine performs in her job?
How do these help her understand more about turtles?
How do these help her understand more about human impacts on our environment?
What did you find most interesting about what Christine does?
What did you find most interesting about what Christine says?

Students may need to watch the clip again to answer these questions. Clips are available on the student worksheet.

Once students have had enough time to discuss and answer their questions you have two options for students sharing their ideas:

OPTION 1.

Invite each ‘Jennifer’ group to team up with a ‘Christine’ group and share and compare their responses. These new groups could also work together to discuss the answers to the following questions:

How are the roles of Jennifer and Christine similar?
How are they different?
What role do you think passion plays in the work that both these scientists do?
What do you think are the most interesting or important messages each of these scientists has for all of us?

OPTION 2.

Invite students to share their responses with the class, with volunteers from ‘Jennifer’ groups and ‘Christine’ groups taking turns to respond. You could then engage all students in a class discussion around the following questions:

How are the roles of Jennifer and Christine similar?
How are they different?
What role do you think passion plays in the work that both these scientists do?
What do you think are the most interesting or important messages each of these scientists has for all of us?

Part C. Who Else is Helping Our Oceans?

Step 1.

Explain to students that they will now undertake research into another Australian scientist who is helping us to understand the impacts of humans on the environment. Students could work independently or in pairs.

Students need to undertake the research necessary to complete the following tasks (also available on the Student Worksheet) and then create a poster or infographic (e.g. Piktochart) of their work to share with the class.

The poster or infographic needs to include:

The name and role of the person students are researching
Where this person works
What some of their tasks are
How they are helping us to understand more about human impacts on our environment
What some of their achievements are
Any other interesting or important information about this scientists and/or their work

Students could identify their own scientist to research, or you could direct them to choose from the following list:

Professor David Karoly
Professor Emma Johnston
Mibu Fischer
Professor Tim Flannery
Professor Veena Sahajwalla

You could consider providing students with the following rubric to let them know what is expected of them: Poster/Infographic Assessment Rubric.

Step 2.

Students should now share their poster or infographic with the class. This could be done by either creating a gallery walk of posters or infographics, or by inviting students to present their posters or infographics to the class. Use the following questions to help students reflect on the information presented in the posters or infographics:

Have you heard of this scientist before?
- If yes, what did you already know and what information was new or interesting to you?
- If no, what did you find interesting or surprising about this scientist and/or the work they do?
How does the work this scientist does help you to understand human impacts on our environment?
What other things would you like to know about this scientist and the work that they do?
In what ways is the work of this scientist inspiring to you?

Reflection

Invite students to work independently to answer the following questions:

How has your thinking about the work of scientists changed during the course of this lesson? Explain your thinking before, during and after looking at your investigation into your scientist and the scientists investigated by others.
What do you think would be the best part about being a scientist studying the human impacts on our environment?
What would be the worst part?
Would you like to be a scientist helping to study the human impacts on the environment? Why or why not? What would you do?

Take It Further

Invite students to apply their learning in a real world context by participating in the Social Action lesson.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn’t work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Blue - Who is Helping Our Oceans?

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UN Sustainable Development Goals

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