Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

30 minutes	Part A. What are the features of mangrove and salt marsh ecosystems?
30 minutes	Part B. What are the opportunities to learn through MangroveWatch?
30 minutes	Part C. How does energy flow through an ecosystem?
30 minutes	Part D. How do abiotic factors impact mangrove and salt marsh communities?
30 minutes	Part E. How do past and present human impacts on mangroves compare?

The Flipped Lesson

This lesson provides the opportunity for students to explore/build their current knowledge, attitudes and values about ecosystems. While working independently, students will view the video, images, food web and tables on the Student Worksheet. Teachers will also gain insight from students’ responses, which can be used to plan the following lesson about making predictions and forming questions as part of a MangroveWatch investigation.

This video, images and food web are useful in examining how and why student thinking has changed, while helping to develop their reasoning abilities when clarifying values and recognising inter-relationships. Suggested answers are included below.

To conduct this lesson, hand out or digitally distribute the Student Worksheet and invite students to work through it in the following order (also available in the Student Worksheet):

Part A. What are the features of mangrove and salt marsh ecosystems?

Students will:

understand the features of mangrove and salt marsh ecosystems.

Part B. What are the opportunities to learn through MangroveWatch?

Students will:

watch the video on MangroveWatch and the Great Barrier Reef
describe the purpose and benefits of MangroveWatch
watch documentary trailer created by students researching salt marsh ecosystems
unpack attitudes of students, teachers and scientists in the videos
complete a values clarification around the most inspiring video.

Part C. How does energy flow through an ecosystem?

Students will:

discuss energy flow through an ecosystem’s trophic levels
create food chains and food webs
account for the MangroveWatch focus on the health of mangroves.

Part D. How do abiotic factors impact mangrove and salt marsh communities?

Students will:

identify methods of measuring a variety of abiotic factors
determine abiotic factors relevant to MangroveWatch.

Part E. How do past and present human impacts on mangroves compare?

Students will:

compare and contrast images of traditional and contemporary Aboriginal people within the context of a mangrove ecosystem
write an exposition based on the two juxtaposed images
analyse environmental values of the people depicted in the images.

Suggested Answers

The answers below can be used to help you guide your students through this flipped lesson, and to assist with the assessment of student work.

Part A. What are the features of mangrove and salt marsh ecosystems?

1. Read the About Mangrove and Salt Marsh Ecosystems factsheet and make notes recording important or interesting ideas about mangrove and salt marsh ecosystems. List three of these ideas below:

Suggested answers: At student discretion

2. Now answer the following questions:

a. What is a mangrove ecosystem? What are the features of a mangrove ecosystem?

Suggested answer: Mangroves are defined as habitats consisting of “trees, shrubs, palms or ground ferns, generally exceeding one half meter in height, and which normally grow above mean sea level in the intertidal zone of marine coastal environments, or estuarine margins”.

b. What is a salt marsh ecosystem?

Suggested answer: Salt marsh habitats consist of plants such as sedges, rushes, reeds, grasses, succulent herbs and shrubs that can tolerate high soil salinity and occasional inundation with salt water. Salt marsh areas have low vegetation, often interspersed with bare patches or salt pans.

c. Why are mangrove and salt marsh ecosystems important to our environment, and particularly to places like the Great Barrier Reef?

Suggested answer: Mangrove and salt marsh ecosystems are important for our environment because they support coastal fisheries and marine biodiversity, they maintain and improve coastal water quality, store carbon, neutralise ocean acidification, and provide a habitat for wildlife. Mangroves and salt marsh ecosystems are particularly important for areas like the Great Barrier Reef because they provide breeding grounds and nurseries for many of the species that live on the reef. Without these sites, food webs would be less resilient and may even collapse.

3. Find one clip about Australian mangroves or salt marsh ecosystems and record the following:

Suggested answers: At student discretion.
- Name of clip:
- URL:
- Summarise this clip in 25 words or less:

Part B. What are the opportunities to learn through MangroveWatch?

Students will watch some clips about MangroveWatch and student researchers/filmmakers and answer the related questions.

Clip 1. MangroveWatch Great Barrier Reef - A Start Some Good Project (https://youtu.be/CsGLgKSD7YE)

1. Describe the purpose of MangroveWatch.

Suggested answer: MangroveWatch is a citizen science program that gives people in the community the chance to participate in hands-on scientific research to collect data on the health of mangroves.

2. Explain how students might benefit from MangroveWatch.

Suggested answer: Students have the opportunity to apply and extend their classroom learning outdoors into the mangroves to collect scientific data and to aid conservation of these important marine environments.

3. How do mangroves help the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area?

Suggested answer: They improve water quality by filtering out nutrients and sediments that run from the land before they enter the reef.

Clip 2. IEEC Mangrove Documentary Trailer (https://youtu.be/hfgwrVD_5ME)

1. List attitudes of students, scientists and teachers within the video toward researching mangroves.

Suggested answers:
- Students enjoyed working outdoors with their classmates, getting ideas about future studies and careers in science and conservation.
- The young scientists thought this was an excellent way for them to share their expertise while conducting practical research.
- The teacher was motivated to give students the opportunity to apply classroom learning to environmental conservation research.

2. Describe similarities in the two clips.

Suggested answers: Both clips are set in mangroves, both involve scientists and the scientific method, and both give opportunities for young people to work outside researching real world issues and processes.

3. Which clip did you find the most inspiring? Explain your answer.

Suggested answers: The first clip is an inspiring delivery by MangroveWatch director, Jock, making a passionate invitation and call to action to participate in the Great Barrier Reef monitoring program. The second clip is equally inspiring as it shows scientists, students and teachers working together as students create a documentary about their mangrove investigations. Making a documentary sounds like a great way of working together to share knowledge and experiences.

If you are planning on conducting practical research in the field, you could consider encouraging students to record their work in order to create their own documentary to share with an audience (e.g. see here).

Part C. How does energy flow through an ecosystem?

1. Complete the mangroves food web that focuses on species present in the Great Barrier Reef.

Suggested answer:

NOTE: Food web with complete species list available here.

2. Create two food chains from the mangrove food web.

Suggested answer:
- Mangrove flower → Northern blossom bat → Eastern osprey
- Detritus → Banana prawn → Common ponyfish→ Eastern great egret→ Saltwater crocodile

3. Discuss the difference between a food web and a food chain.

Suggested answer: A food chain describes a single pathway that energy follows in an ecosystem. It usually starts with a plant material (primary producer) and ends with a top predator. A food web is a visual representation of multiple food chains to show greater complexity than a food chain.

4. Explain why MangroveWatch focuses on the health of mangrove plants.

Suggested answer: Mangrove plants are primary producers creating the food, mostly in the form of detritus providing the foundations for all mangrove food chains and food webs. Healthy mangrove plants are essential to maintaining the mangrove ecosystem. High primary productivity by healthy mangrove plants allows the ecosystem to provide better ecosystem system services like supporting coastal fisheries and storing carbon.

Part D. How do abiotic factors impact mangrove and salt marsh communities?

1. Match equipment with the correct abiotic factor description. Write the units of measurement.

Suggested answers:

Equipment	Abiotic factors descriptions	Units
Magnifying glass & soil sieves	Texture depends upon the composition of the soil i.e. amounts of sand, silt or clay.	Millimetres mm & microns μm (note 1000μm in 1 mm)
Soil moisture meter	Water contained in soil is called soil moisture. The water is held within the soil pores. Plant growth is sensitive to soil moisture stress.	Percentage - %
Refractometer	Salinity is the measure of all the salts dissolved in water. Salinity influences where plants and animals live.	Parts per thousand - ppt
Anemometer	Wind speed affects the temperature, humidity and intertidal currents. Wind also contributes to the dispersal of Grey Mangrove propagules in water currents.	Knots - kn Kilometres per hour - km/h Metres per second - m/s
Light meter	Sunlight provides the energy required by plants to photosynthesise. Energy in plants moves between organisms through food chains and food webs.	Lux - lx
Soil thermometer	The temperature of a soil affects how fast plants can grow. Soil temperature also affects how quickly plants take up water and nutrients.	Degrees celsius - ºC

2. Research and record optimum abiotic factors for mangroves and salt marsh.

Abiotic factors required by mangrove plants	Abiotic factors required by salt marsh plants
Australia’s mangroves are influenced and limited by temperature, moisture conditions, rainfall, salinity and tidal position.	Tidal inundation frequency, soil salinity, high light environment (absence of mangroves). Substrate type.

3. List five abiotic factors that could be observed as part of MangroveWatch's research.

Suggested answers: Soil moisture, rainfall, soil type, soil salinity, elevation below mean high tide.

Part E. How do past and present human impacts on mangroves compare?

1. Write an exposition to compare and contrast the images. This could be written in poetic form (see example below) or in clear descriptive language.

Example:

One is very old, in black and white while the other is recent and in colour
Naked, using ancient yet advanced technology that is simply sustainable
Rangers wear protective clothing however they can only watch and wait
Deep knowledge, 60 thousands years old, caretakers
Widespread dieback, he suspects climate change
They are connected, a thriving community
He is separated, isolated and waiting
Both are affected by change
Change takes time
Time can’t wait

2. Describe and compare the environmental values that are common to both MangroveWatch researchers and volunteers and traditional Aboriginal people.

Suggested answers:

MangroveWatch researchers are ecological scientists motivated to ask questions and to inspire research into mangrove ecosystems. Study of these ecosystems requires long term data collection to understand complex problems, and help preserve them. Scientists are naturally inquisitive, asking questions, making predictions and testing hypotheses to create new knowledge. Ecologists make observations of the environment following the scientific method, asking questions, generating hypotheses and testing those hypotheses to understand patterns and phenomena they see in the environment.
MangroveWatch volunteers can be people from all walks of life looking to work with like-minded people with a common interest in science, conservation and/or caring for the environment. MangroveWatch volunteers use tidal wetlands or waterways and understand their value. MangroveWatch volunteers have often observed changes to their local environment, are concerned for its future and have a desire to learn more about what they can do to help. Observation of environmental change by volunteers is often incidental and does not follow the scientific method. However, their observations are still important to help the MangroveWatch researchers answer their questions.
Traditional Aboriginal people have a deep connection to and reliance upon the land that enables them to live sustainably. They have a spiritual connection with the land that ensures they live as custodians of the environment. Because they live closely in contact with nature, they are also keen observers of their environment (like scientists) and observe change even though they may not record it as data.

Cool Australia, Earthwatch and MangroveWatch would like to acknowledge Australia’s coastal Traditional Owners and elders past, present and future who have been the custodians of Australia’s tidal wetland resources for generations.

MangroveWatch - A Citizen Science Project

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