Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

20 minutes

Part A: Activating prior knowledge

30 minutes

Part B: Design challenge

10 minutes

Reflection

Part A: Activating prior knowledge

Step 1

Begin the lesson by watching the following clip as a class (also embedded on the Student Worksheet). As they watch, invite students to record any information that they think is important or interesting.

How the ocean is changing (https://vimeo.com/1056608895/2b4f630e33)

Once complete, invite students to share their thoughts about the clip. Consider the following points in your discussion:

What did you see in this clip? What was this clip about?
What does this clip make you think about?
What did you find important or interesting about this clip?
What questions does this clip leave you with?

Step 2

Once complete, read or display the following quote to the class, explaining that it comes from the clip they just watched:

If it's OK and we all agree that we don't have a coral reef, do nothing.
lucas handley

Invite students to agree or disagree to with this quote by indicating thumbs up or thumbs down.

Now draw an imaginary line in the classroom and ask students who agreed to stand opposite to those who disagreed. Invite a couple of students from each side to share the reasons behind their choice.

Next, draw a second imaginary line, perpendicular to the first one. Ask students to cross to the other side of the line if they based their response on scientific facts. Again, invite a couple of students who crossed the line about their responses. You will probably find that none of the students who disagreed with the first statement will cross the second line. However, if they did, ask them about the scientific facts that made them disagree with the statement.

It is also fine if no students crossed the line; they might not know anything about the coral reef yet. That will be the next step.

Wrap up the activity by discussing how, with the scientific knowledge we currently have, it is clear we need to do something.

Step 3

Now, invite students to watch the following clip about the Great Barrier Reef. As they watch, invite students to record any information that they think is important or interesting.

State of the reef (https://vimeo.com/1056608936/048457e885)

Once complete, invite students to share their thoughts about the clip. Consider the following points in your discussion:

What did you see in this clip? What was this clip about?
What does this clip make you think about?
What did you find important or interesting about this clip?
What questions does this clip leave you with?

Step 4.

Ask students to read the Coral Reefs Factsheet and respond to the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What are coral reefs?
Why are coral reefs important?
Who would be affected by the disappearance of coral reefs?
What are the main issues coral reefs are facing?
List three things you read in this factsheet that you didn't already know or that you found interesting.
Was there any vocabulary in this factsheet that you weren't clear about? List these words.
What questions did this factsheet leave you with? What don't you understand?

Invite students to share their thoughts with the class.

You could record student thoughts and use some of these ideas to guide further discussion or inquiry.

Part B: Design challenge

Preparation

The class will now take part in a design challenge. The goal is to come up with an idea or ideas for a long-term solution to protect the Great Barrier Reef. This design challenge will take you and your class through the first two stages of the design thinking model.

The first stage, 'empathise', has been covered through the questions students have answered on their Student Worksheets.

The next stage, 'define', is perhaps the most challenging stage. In this stage, the problem is defined or 'framed'. Achieving this requires unpacking and synthesising the findings from the empathy stage.

Explain to students that the strategy they will use for defining the problem will be the 'challenge map'. This technique will scaffold students through framing the problem. Real world problems are fuzzy, ambiguous and very complex. Challenge mapping is useful because it helps break down vague objectives into more practical ones.

Step 1

The design challenge is to save the coral reefs.

To start your challenge map, you need to write the following statement in the centre of the board:

'Save the Great Barrier Reef'

Now ask your students “Why?"

The purpose of this question is to broaden the problem. You want to get to the real problems behind this statement.

There are different themes that will arise from this statement. After the first response ask “why?" again or “why else?” or “why might we want to?”. You may get many different answers; write all of them down and connect them to the original question, then ask why again for each. Repeat this process until your class can not think of any more reasons.

You will get a broad image of what problems are affecting the coral reefs and why they need to be solved.

Step 2

Now it is time to dig deeper into each of the themes that arose from the "why" questions, and to narrow the focus of each problem.

Rephrase the most interesting problems, those you want to dig deeper into, as “how might we?” questions.

Articulating the problem as a 'How might we...?' question suggests that a solution is possible and that there is more than one way of solving the problem.

Write down all the answers your students come up with for each problem and then ask either “how might we?” again or “what is stopping us from?”

Step 3

Using this strategy, your students will probably have come up with different options such as marine sanctuaries, cooling the water, managing the acidity through technology/chemistry, and removing carbon dioxide from the ocean. Your class may even come up with a solution that does not involve coral reefs at all; for example, replacing coral reefs with a different habitat that will fulfil the same function.

Don't judge their ideas; the challenge map is a brainstorming exercise and students should be able to come up with crazy ideas. These might give rise to practical ones.

Wrap up the activity by asking students to work in pairs to evaluate their ideas:

Which two ideas do you think are the two most interesting? Why?
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these proposals.
What are the social, environmental and economic benefits of these proposals?
What are the social, environmental and economic risks of these proposals?
What would be your next step in moving ahead with your favourite proposal?
What information and resources would you now need in order to move ahead? Where would you find this information or these resources?

Reflection

Invite students to work independently to consider the topic they looked at today, and the process they used to explore it. Students should answer the following questions:

How was the information presented in this lesson connected to what you already knew?
What new ideas did you get that extended or pushed your thinking in new directions?
What is still challenging or confusing for you to get your mind around? What questions do you now have?

Take it further

Invite students to apply their learning in a real world context by participating in this Social Action lesson: Ocean Guardian Campaigns - Social Action - Year 9 & 10.

Become an Ocean Guardian and join the global movement now!

Go to Blue website to become an ocean guardian and take action for our ocean. Actions include:

Stop eating unsustainable fish
Demand shops reduce plastic packaging
Refuse plastic shopping bags
Avoid cosmetics with micro-beads
Clean the beach

Take a picture of your actions and post it with the hashtag #oceanguardian

Visit the website to find out more: https://bluethefilm.org/take-action/

Our ocean has been the guardian of life on Earth. Now it is our turn to be guardians for the ocean.

Blue - Coral Reef Design Challenge

Go to

Summary

Learning intentions:

Students will...

Success criteria:

Students can...

Lesson guides and printables

Lesson Details

Skills

Curriculum Mapping

Resources Required

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Additional Info

Related Professional Learning

In this lesson