MangroveWatch - Mangrove and Salt Marsh Ecosystems

This flipped classroom unit focuses on introducing students to mangrove and salt marsh ecosystems and exploring their values and attitudes towards conservation research in the context of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. The lesson covers topics such as human relationships with these ecosystems, the flow of energy within and through these ecosystems, and citizen science opportunities through programs such as MangroveWatch, Earthwatch, and ClimateWatch. The lesson is part of a six-lesson unit of work and includes activities such as researching secondary sources to describe the causes and effects of changes to mangrove health, brainstorming events that might cause variations in abiotic factors, visualizing themselves as MangroveWatch researchers and identifying considerations for planning research, conducting fieldwork tasks, and communicating findings through scientific reports.