Note: Teacher’s notes are in red

“Great Barrier Reef”

This activity will help students understand the environmental importance of coral reefs and the threats to reefs’ conservation. Through the process of gathering geographic information about a place (in this case, the Great Barrier Reef), students will learn how a “geographic focus” can sharpen their insights about a conservation issue.

Your Mission

Be a Great Barrier Reef ecotour leader!

Subjects: Geography, Science, English, Art

Relevant U.S. National Geography Standards: 1, 8, 14

Materials

Atlas of the Australia region

Color pencils

(Optional) Handouts on the Great Barrier Reef

Paper

Eco What?

G’day, mate! The Land Down Under—that’s Australia to you, seppo—has a problem. The government wants to give tourists ecotours of the Great Barrier Reef, but it needs qualified tour guides. She’s apples if you’re at the reef all day—sunshine and all the snorkeling you can handle (in your free time, of course) None of us Aussies has a clue about being an ecotour guide. Why don’t you apply?

Ask students if they can define “ecotourism.” Write their answers on the board. For the rest of the activity, students should work in pairs. Each team of students will try to convince the Australian government they are the best people to hire to give ecotours. Send the teams to the Ecotourism Explorer Web site (http://www.ecotourism.org), and ask them to note how ecotourism differs from standard tours.

Work with a mate on this assignment. Your goal is to convince the Australian government that you would be the most qualified people to give ecotours of the Great Barrier Reef. What’s an ecotour, you say? Learn more about this relatively new field at http://www.ecotourism.org.

Reef Brief

Discuss, as a class, what students know about coral reefs. Ask questions such as “What is a coral reef? What is the Great Barrier Reef? Why is the coral of the Great Barrier Reef important? What are some of the threats to the health of the reef?” Write students’ responses on the board. (You can find the answers, and print them out, by going to http://terrax.org/teacher/lessons/australia/reef/reeffacts.html. If students don’t have access to the Internet, give them this as a handout.) Ask students to define “preservation,” “conservation, and “restoration”; write those responses on the board. How might those terms apply to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia? Read a dictionary’s definitions of “conservation,” “preservation,” and “restoration.”

The Great Barrier Reef lies off the east coast of Australia. It is the world’s largest coral reef. Coral reefs have been called the “tropical rain forests of the ocean.” The Great Barrier Reef, a World Heritage Area, is a popular tourist site, as well as an important environmental resource. To get the job as ecotour-guide, you’ll need to know a lot about the reef, and about how to visit it in an environmentally sound way. You can find helpful information at Trishan’s Page of Oz (http://www.ozramp.net.au/~senani/barrier.htm) or at the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency site (www.env.qld.gov.au/environment/coast/reef/), or by going to other sites. Take notes, because you’re going to be making a brochure to promote your venture.

First, students will gather information about the Great Coral Reef, keeping in mind points they may want to address in their brochures.

Creating Your Brochure

Give students the freedom to create any shape, color, or size of brochure they wish. Show them one easy way—to fold a piece of paper lengthwise.

Here are some suggestions on what you might want to include in your brochure:

A map of Australia and the Great Barrier Reef. (Make sure your map includes latitude and longitude, and “TODALSS,” a cartographer’s way of remembering these map elements: Title, Orientation, Data, Author, Legend, Scale, Source.)

A description of a coral reef: What is a coral reef? Why are coral reefs important?

The reason why the Great Barrier Reef can be called a region. What are the unique characteristics of this region?

A list of

some of the species that inhabit the Great Barrier Reef, including various kinds of fish, coral, mollusks (such as clams and sea slugs), seaweed, birds, sea snakes, and sea turtles;

natural and human-induced threats to the Great Barrier Reef; and

things people can do to help save the reef.

Tips for responsible techniques and practices for marine ecotourism.

For design tips and a checklist of more items your brochure could feature, go to the About.com Website (in Web Links). Make sure all the information you include focuses on ecotourism.

Making Your Pitch

Teams should prepare to pitch their ideas for ecotourism at the Great Barrier Reef to the Australian government (their classmates). Encourage them to have fun—choose an Australian name for their “company,” dress like a tour guide, use props, and affect an Australian accent. Classmates will pretend to be Australian government officials. Each team should limit their presentation to 5 to 10 minutes. Both team members should participate in the presentation.

Use what you have learned about the environmental importance of coral reefs and the benefits of ecotourism to convince the Australian government to hire your team to give ecotours of the Great Barrier Reef. Explain the ways in which humans are modifying this region and what people can do to help save the reef.

Have the class vote on the best presentation.

Display brochures in school hallways or in the library before or during Geography Awareness Week.

Taking Action!

You don’t have to live near the coast to have an effect on a coral reef. To find out what steps the Environmental Protection Agency is taking to protect coral reefs and how you can contribute to this effort, go to http://www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/factsheets/
fact4.html.

Consider participating in the annual International Coastal Cleanup. You can find the list of state coordinators for this project at the Center for Marine Conservation (http://www.cmc-ocean.org/cleanupbro/coord/US/
coord.php3).

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