The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and its national education centre for the Great Barrier Reef, Reef HQ Aquarium, offer an extensive range of educational resources and programs. Visit our new Reef Guardian School portal.
Reef Guardian Schools
The Reef Guardian School program has been running since 2003, the program encourages teachers and students to take actions that help protect the Great Barrier Reef and its connected ecosystems. 2023 marks the 20-year anniversary of the Schools program, more than 350,000 students have attended a Reef Guardian School since its inception.
Visit the Reef Guardian School portal to see their collective actions.
Celebrating 20 years of learning
From humble beginnings with 5 pilot schools, there have been some amazing achievements over the years. We would love to hear your stories!
Our mission in the next 12 months is to celebrate these amazing achievements over the last 20 years.
To do this, we need your help! We want to share the stories of our past and present Reef Guardian School students, teachers, parents and the community to inspire the next generation to love and care for the Great Barrier Reef. We have compiled some questions below to gather your stories and ideas for how we can share and celebrate this milestone.
We are not sure just yet how we want to present all of these stories, but we have some ideas... such as mini profiles on our reefed.ed.au website, creating a video and sharing on our social media - but we'd love to hear your ideas too.
Educational resources and programs
These resources are curriculum-linked for all year levels, from early learning to grade 12.
Virtual Learning Experiences
Reef HQ Aquarium uses video-conferencing to virtually connect with classrooms. Students are taken on a virtual dive from their classroom to divers in the Coral Reef and Predator Exhibits of Reef HQ Aquarium.
Resources for each year level and by theme
These are curriculum-linked teaching materials specifically developed to be integrated in school learning as science-focused units.
There are units for each year level – from early learning to grade 12 – making it an easy resource for teachers to utilise.
Teachers can explore all resources by topic, including coastal ecosystems, endangered species, extreme weather, the Great Barrier Reef, Indigenous use, marine debris, responsible reef practices, climate change, tourism and water quality.
To access resources, visit our new interactive Reef Guardian School portal.
Reef HQ Aquarium transformation
Reef HQ Aquarium is the national education centre for the Great Barrier Reef. It is currently closed for transformation – keep up to date here.
Since December 2019, the Australian Government have invested $80.1 million in the refurbishment of the National Education Centre for the Great Barrier Reef, Reef HQ Aquarium. Click here to find out more about the transformation.
The Australian Government response to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works report on the redevelopment of Reef HQ Aquarium can be found here.
Educational videos
The Reef Education team at Reef HQ Aquarium are developing virtual lessons through YouTube videos with supporting worksheets. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay up-to-date.
Reef Beat education series
The Reef Beat education series is a popular resource for teaching primary school students. Each series focuses on a different topic and includes posters, an activity book and, in some cases, videos.
The education series covers a range of topics, including climate change, sea country connection, sustainability, wetlands, threats to the Reef, biodiversity and more.
Be a Marine Biologist
Be a Marine Biologist for a Day is a package of educational resources to assist teachers, marine tourism operators and reef guides in facilitating high-quality experiential learning excursions for students visiting the Great Barrier Reef.
This comprehensive suite of educational resources includes customisable teaching, instructional resources and activities that are curriculum-linked and aligned with specific stages of learning from prep through to year 12.
This toolkit is based on the Reef Authority’s long-established Eye on the Reef - Rapid Monitoring reef health survey methodology and builds students’ citizen science skills.
The Be a Marine Biologist for a Day initiative brings together a number of Reef Authority programs, including Reef Guardian Schools, High Standard Tourism Operators, Master Reef Guides and our Eye on the Reef Program.
