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Learn about the Great Barrier Reef
Reef Education Resources
Our education resources cover a range of topics to teach and learn about the Great Barrier Reef including climate change, sea country connection, sustainability, wetlands, threats to the Reef, biodiversity. Below you can find resources, including our Reef Beat poster series, science unit plans, student activity sheets, videos and much more!
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  • Primary school
  • Middle school
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Showing 6 of 174 results

Senior Grade 11 - Class features and Binomial Classification

Classification

1. Class features - Using the information from page 1, find examples of reef animals for each of the Classes to
complete the table below. Include the Genus and species name for each animal if you can. In
the last column, record the features of the animal that group it in this Class.
2. What’s in a name?
a. Explain how we can tell they are different species if they have the same species name?
b. Investigate what the word “lineatus” means. Record your findings below.
c. Explain why both fish have the same species name of lineatus?

Subjects: Reef Guardians

Senior Grade 11 - Phylum Features Table

Classification

1. Complete the table below using the information on Page 2 to help you.
2. This table lists the common features or characteristics that are used to group
animals into different Phyla. Use this information to help you to complete the
table.

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Reef Guardians

Primary Grade 5 - (Behavioural) Nightly Behaviours

Reef animals have some unusual behaviours at night.

Can you guess what they are?

Subjects: Endangered Species, Reef Guardians

Middle/Senior Grade 7 to 11 - Platyhelminthes

Classification - Phylum Platyhelminthes

1. Select which group of worms the name Platyhelminthes refers to.
2. Connect the following words to their meaning.
3. Identify the key characteristics of animals in this phylum.

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Reef Guardians

Middle Grade 7 - What makes them different?

Classification Challenge Sheet Echinoderms

1. What makes them different? SeaStar, sea cucumbers and sea urchins are all grouped together because they have characteristics in common, even though each animal looks very different to the others.
2. List three characteristics that they all have in common.
3. Dichotomous keys are used by scientists to correctly identify species. Use the key below to identify the three types of echinoderms in the pictures below.

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Endangered Species, Reef Guardians

Middle/Senior Grade 7 to 11 - Mollusca

Classification - Phylum Mollusca

1. List some of the animals that belong in this phylum.
2. Identify the key characteristics of animals in this phylum.
3. Describe what a radula is and where it is found.

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Reef Guardians
Showing 6 of 109 results

Primary Grade 5 -Leggy Crustaceans

Adaptations

Crustaceans have adapted their jointed, armoured legs so that they can be used not just for walking over sand and coral, but for swimming, feeling, catching and grasping food, holding bunches of eggs and even for shooting backwards.

1. Using the letters in this table, colour in the legs as indicated and find out uses of the different legs on each of these crustaceans. Some legs may be used for more than one action.

Subjects: Reef Guardians

Primary Grade 5 - Food Glorius Food

Adaptations

1. Use the information on page 2 to help you complete the table below as you explore animal shapes, habitats and special features. Explore animal shapes, habitats and special features.
An animal’s mouth and body shape, as well as the habitat it lives in can give us clues as to what it feeds upon. Many marine organisms also possess defence mechanisms to prevent them from becoming food themselves.
2. Use the information below to assist you in completing the table on the previous page.

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Endangered Species, Reef Guardians

Primary Grade 5 - Ecological Evolution & Variations

Adaptations

1. How do corals compete for light? Reef building corals require solar energy to grow and lay down their skeleton.
2. Your challenge is to investigate the structural adaptations that corals have evolved to compete for this valuable resource.
3. Use the information gained to complete the table below.

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Reef Guardians

Primary Grade 4 - Seagrass Beds

Seagrass meadows are important ecosystems in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Colour all the animals you can find and then answer the following questions.
1. Identify as many organisms as you can and record their names below:
2. Define the following terms: a. Producer b. Consumer c. Decomposer
3. Identify an organism in a seagrass meadow that is a: a. Producer b. Consumer c. Decomposer

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Reef Guardians

Primary Grade 4 - Food Chains & Numbers Pyramid

1. Consider the following levels in a food chain. Write examples of the plants or animals that represent each level in a marine food chain environment.
2. Food chains vary in length though are rarely more than five levels. Suggest a reason for this.
3. Food webs give a useful description of the feeding relationships in an ecosystem.
a. Using the examples you have written in the table above, draw a pyramid of numbers which represents this food chain.
b. Draw a pyramid of numbers that represents the following scenario: a large predatory fish covered in parasites, being cleaned by a symbiotic cleaner fish.

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Reef Guardians

Primary Grade 4 - Predator vs Prey

Select one of the predator-prey relationships below and describe, or draw a
diagram to show:
a) How the predator "attacks" its prey
b) How the prey avoids being attacked

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Endangered Species, Reef Guardians
Showing 6 of 124 results

Primary Grade 5 - (Behavioural) Nightly Behaviours

Reef animals have some unusual behaviours at night.

Can you guess what they are?

Subjects: Endangered Species, Reef Guardians

Middle/Senior Grade 7 to 11 - Platyhelminthes

Classification - Phylum Platyhelminthes

1. Select which group of worms the name Platyhelminthes refers to.
2. Connect the following words to their meaning.
3. Identify the key characteristics of animals in this phylum.

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Reef Guardians

Middle Grade 7 - What makes them different?

Classification Challenge Sheet Echinoderms

1. What makes them different? SeaStar, sea cucumbers and sea urchins are all grouped together because they have characteristics in common, even though each animal looks very different to the others.
2. List three characteristics that they all have in common.
3. Dichotomous keys are used by scientists to correctly identify species. Use the key below to identify the three types of echinoderms in the pictures below.

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Endangered Species, Reef Guardians

Middle/Senior Grade 7 to 11 - Mollusca

Classification - Phylum Mollusca

1. List some of the animals that belong in this phylum.
2. Identify the key characteristics of animals in this phylum.
3. Describe what a radula is and where it is found.

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Reef Guardians

Middle/Senior Grade 7 to 11 - Echinodermata

Classification - Phylum Echinodermata

1. List the five (5) main classes (groups) of animals in this phylum.
2. Identify the key characteristics of animals in this phylum.
3. Describe papulae and explain what they are used for.
4. Describe a madreporite and explain what it is used for.

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Reef Guardians

Middle/Senior Grade 7 to 11 - Cnidaria

Classification - Phylum Cnidaria

1. Name three animals that belong to the phylum Cnidaria.
2. Identify the key characteristics of Cnidarians.
3. Describe what nematocysts are used for.

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Reef Guardians
Showing 6 of 132 results

Senior Grade 11 - Phylum Features Table

Classification

1. Complete the table below using the information on Page 2 to help you.
2. This table lists the common features or characteristics that are used to group
animals into different Phyla. Use this information to help you to complete the
table.

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Reef Guardians

Middle/Senior Grade 7 to 11 - Platyhelminthes

Classification - Phylum Platyhelminthes

1. Select which group of worms the name Platyhelminthes refers to.
2. Connect the following words to their meaning.
3. Identify the key characteristics of animals in this phylum.

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Reef Guardians

Middle/Senior Grade 7 to 11 - Mollusca

Classification - Phylum Mollusca

1. List some of the animals that belong in this phylum.
2. Identify the key characteristics of animals in this phylum.
3. Describe what a radula is and where it is found.

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Reef Guardians

Middle/Senior Grade 7 to 11 - Echinodermata

Classification - Phylum Echinodermata

1. List the five (5) main classes (groups) of animals in this phylum.
2. Identify the key characteristics of animals in this phylum.
3. Describe papulae and explain what they are used for.
4. Describe a madreporite and explain what it is used for.

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Reef Guardians

Middle/Senior Grade 7 to 11 - Cnidaria

Classification - Phylum Cnidaria

1. Name three animals that belong to the phylum Cnidaria.
2. Identify the key characteristics of Cnidarians.
3. Describe what nematocysts are used for.

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Reef Guardians

Middle/Senior Grade 7 to 11 - Arthropoda

Classification - Phylum Arthropoda

1. List some animals that belong to this phylum.
2. Identify the key characteristics of animals in this phylum.
3. Describe what an exoskeleton is.

Subjects: Ecosystems and Habitats, Reef Guardians