Protecting our marine world is an integrated curriculum teaching resource with New Zealand’s marine reserves as a real-life context for learning. The resource links to the New Zealand Curriculum at levels 1-4, but can be adapted for use at various levels.
The resource contains teaching and learning material to support a unit of work, grounded in Environmental Education for Sustainability (EEfS)/Conservation education themes and incorporating aspects of Te Ao Māori (a Māori worldview). The unit is based on an integrated, inquiry learning process.
Learning objectives
Overall vision:
To provide students, teachers and their communities with opportunities to grow their knowledge, skills and understandings about marine conservation, so that they can help resolve environmental challenges for the marine environment in their local area and beyond.
The exact pathways of learning and associated outcomes are up to students and teachers. Activities and suggestions in the resource enable the following learning opportunities:
Connecting to the marine environment (Te Taha Wairua)
Students can:
- form significant personal connections to their local marine environment
- have awareness and sensitivity about local species and environments and start to care for them.
Knowledge, skills and understandings (Te Taha Hinengaro, Te Taha Tinana)
Students can:
- grow their understandings of no-take marine reserves in New Zealand
- recognise the role of tangata whenua in marine conservation
- learn skills to help address marine conservation issues.
Taking collective action and working with community (Te Taha Whānau)
Students can:
- act alongside the wider community to contribute to a healthy marine environment
- participate in active sharing with the community to celebrate success and action.
Download the resource
- Introduction and example unit plan (PDF, 2,198K)
- Activity 1: Introducing marine reserves (PDF, 1,464K)
- Activity 2: Marine habitats of New Zealand (PDF, 2,750K)
- Activity 3: Stars of a marine reserve (PDF, 3,129K)
- Activity 4: Investigating marine ecosystems (PDF, 2,774K)
- Activity 5: The marine world and Te Ao Māori (PDF, 1,259K)
- Activity 6: Marine reserves for everyone (PDF, 1,684K)
- Activity 7: Issues for marine environments (PDF, 1,996K)
- Activity 8: Visiting marine environments and reserves (PDF, 4,486K)
- Activity 9: The health of marine environments (PDF, 1,732K)
- Activity 10: The future of marine reserves (PDF, 1,746K)
- Activity 11: Action for marine environments (PDF, 2,180K)
- Appendicies: Marine reserve site visit notes and glossary (PDF, 5,459K)
Note: This is a very large file and may take some time to download.
Supporting resources
- Slideshow- Introducing marine reserves
- Slideshow- Healthy marine environments
- Padlet page- Issues for marine environments
- Young Ocean Explorers Assignments – these assignments use videos and quizzes to aid your marine investigation.
Resources from the 2004 marine reserves education resource:
- Feeding fish in marine reserves (PDF, 206K)
- How intertidal animals avoid drying out (PDF, 57K)
- The seashore food cycle (PDF, 340K)
- Marine feeding methods (PDF, 450K)
- Marine feeding methods cont. (PDF, 525K)
- The hermit crab – model study (PDF, 86K)
- Fish identification and habitat relationships (PDF, 401K)
Other resources
- The New Zealand Virtual Reality project
- Marine Metre Squared project
- Marine Mammals of New Zealand poster – Free printed poster available. Email conserved@doc.govt.nz
Learning levels
- Primary
- Secondary
Topics
- Marine and coastal
- Animals
- Plants
Curriculum learning areas
- Science
- Social science
- Health and physical education
- English
- Mathematics
- Technology
Feedback
We would love to get your feedback about our resources so they are useful to you and your students - email conservED@doc.govt.nz and tell us what you think.
Contact
If you have questions about these resources email conservED@doc.govt.nz.
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