Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune In: What is a Marine Protected Area?

15 minutes

Find Out: What does effective protection look like?

30 minutes

Take Action: Researching Marine Protected Areas

Tune In: What is a Marine Protected Area?

Step 1

Watch this clip from the film:

Blueback - Abby tries to save Blueback (vimeo.com/794748860)

Step 2

Ask students if they think the clip shows an effective way to protect marine life? Why/why not? Students should justify their reasons.

Step 3

Think - pair - share. Ask students - why should we protect marine environments? You might like to use Blueback as a means to prompt students to think about the various reasons why we might protect the ocean. Collect and share responses.

Step 4

Explain that National Parks are similar to Marine Protected Areas or Marine Parks, except that National Parks are land based and Marine Parks are water based.

Step 5

Provide students with the Student Worksheet. They will work in teams to investigate a National Park in their state or territory. They should answer the following questions on their worksheet:

What is the name of the National Park?
What do you think is the purpose of the National Park?
Find a map of the National Park. How is the land being used surrounding the park?
What are some of the rules and regulations for visiting that National Park? (What can and cannot be done in National Parks?)

Step 6

Explain that like National Parks, Marine Parks or Marine Protected Areas also have:

names
a clear purpose
clear boundaries
rules and regulations for how the space can be used.

However, the rules, regulations and laws around what can and cannot be done in an Marine Protected Area can vary significantly depending on:

Why they were established
The natural/cultural/social resources they are meant to protect
Which groups want to use the areas/zones in the MPA.

Step 7

Students create a definition for Marine Protected Areas in their vocabulary banks. Teachers may like to co-construct a definition with students.

Find Out: Using the Marine Conservation Institute’s MPA Atlas

Step 1

Explain:

The Marine Conservation Institute has set up an interactive map that allows Marine Protected Areas to be listed and have data collected on them. It is a very specific map that details the different scales and levels of protection that are given to certain marine environments.

Step 2

Independently, students can have a click around and familiarise themselves with the website - The MPA Atlas (mpatlas.org/)

Step 3

Explain:

Upon looking at the world map, students will notice that a key is being used to denote Marine Protected Areas and their different levels of protection.

Scroll to the left hand side of the site and find the code - explicitly teach students about the details of this coding. Explain that not all protected areas are created equal. 75% of Australia's Marine Protected Areas are 'lightly' or 'moderately' protected (5 - 6 rating) where 9% are 'highly' or 'fully' protected (1- 5 rating).

Introduce students to the Marine Conservation Institute’s Classification System. Project these images and explain that students will have to use them to help them interpret data in the next activity.

Image 1: Ask your students to look for the MPA Index number for each of the countries they’re studying. They can then use this to work out the level of protection being offered.

A table that shows various levels of protection for marine environments.

Image 2: Grorud-Colvert et al., Science 373, eabf0861 (2021). DOI: 10.1126/science.abf0861

Explain that this image shows the different levels of protection that can be achieved by increasing levels of commitment to protective action. For example, in a lightly protected area, extractive fishing and/or mining practices can occur, whereas in highly protected areas, these activities are prohibited.

Take Action: Researching Marine Protected Areas

Step 1

Ask your students to begin the next activity on the student worksheet. On The MPA Atlas home page, ask them to go to the top far left tab ‘Explore Marine Protection’ and select the dropdown box ‘By Country’.Assign each student or pair of students a different country to investigate.Students should find out the following information and complete their student worksheet:

Name of the country __________________________What percentage of the country’s waters are marine protected? _____________
To what level? ____________________________________________________
How many MPAs are in the country’s region? ____________________________

Extension

If students complete this task quickly, give them another country to study.

Step 2

When students are finished finding the information they need, students share their findings. Ask them to arrange their countries and rank them in terms of how much of the ocean they are protecting. You could ask them to write their findings as a short sentence.

Step 3

Find Australia on The MPA Atlas and share the statistics with students.

Step 4. Discuss

Why is Australia’s percentage for highly and fully protected Marine Protected Areas as low as 9%?

Explain that the next lesson will focus entirely on Australia's protected areas.

Blueback - Abby tries to save Blueback (vimeo.com/794748860)

Differentiated Learning

We trust that teachers are the best equipped to know how to cater to the diversity in their classes. At Cool Australia, we incorporate a variety of differentiation strategies into each lesson. Firstly, each lesson in this unit appeals to an array of different learning preferences. Learning activities can be completed in a number of different ways - if a student feels more comfortable speaking rather than writing, there are opportunities to accommodate this. In lessons that feature group work or learning stations, we trust that teachers will use their discretion in knowing how to best organise their students in accordance to positive working relationships and ability. Graphic organisers and scaffolds are often included so students can ‘visually think’ and keep a record of their work. While our lessons are designed to be 55 - 60 minutes in length, we trust that teachers will manipulate lesson and segment times according to the needs of their students.

Blueback - What are Marine Protected Areas?

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