YEAR 9 AQUARIUM EXCURSION

On Tuesday 31/7/18, Y9C and Y9A students visited Melbourne Aquarium as part of the topic on Oceanography from the Y9 Science curriculum. The students were preparing for their Great Barrier Reef Mock Conference in their Science classes, days before taking part in the excursion. At this conference, they had to present to an audience, in expert teams on topics related to the major environmental impacts facing the Great Barrier Reef. Some of these impacts include Climate Change, Agricultural Threats, Industrial Development and Tourism.

Each team gave an oral presentation and prepared a poster with a visual aid such as Google Slides or Powerpoint. The purpose of the conference was to consolidate information and to inform policymakers such as governments in the hope that they will make appropriate policies regarding the protection of the reef. 

In addition, all the students were required to write an executive summary of the conference findings. They had to listen carefully and take notes when other research teams were presenting. In the executive summary, they listed and summarised the threats to the reef and provided policy recommendation(s) to address each threat.

Melbourne Aquarium has re-created a coral reef ecosystem, where students can observe first hand some of the beautiful corals, fish and other marine creatures found in a coral reef ecosystem. This enables the students to gain a greater understanding of the complex symbiotic relationships that exist on the reef and allows them to appreciate the delicate nature of this vulnerable ecosystem. Each group had to act as a team of specialists in a particular area relating to the Great Barrier Reef. At the conference, each team submitted an academic/conference poster showing their team's findings. On the day of the excursion, the students also learnt about the complex feeding relationships in marine ecosystems and built food chains and food webs through a role play activity. After eating their lunch at Federation Square, the students were fortunate to visit Screen Worlds at ACMI and had the opportunity to play some of the interesting computer games on show. Thank you, Elaine Rose for organizing the excursion and Jon Wilson who assisted on the day.

Michael Hardiker - Science teacher