REEFSearch Teacher Support Guide Authors
The REEFSearch Marine Education Kit and associated activities have been created to enable educators to bring reefs to the classroom. The activities are designed to allow students to apply the concepts learnt in the REEFSearch program, regardless of their proximity to the reef, or coastline. Reef Check Australia encourages you to utilise what you can from the support guide, change what you need, and more than anything else: INSPIRE your students to be the change they want to see in the world. Here is a little bit of background to the creators of the Teacher Support Guide.
Jodi Salmond
Jodi Salmond is a marine biologist, completing her degree with honours in Marine Parasitology at James Cook University in Townsville. She started diving and helping with reef surveys on the Great Barrier Reef, before following her passion to a variety of new and exciting places. She spent three years at Underwater World on the Sunshine Coast, four seasons monitoring and tagging nesting sea turtles on Lady Musgrave Island, Mon Repo and Fraser Island, before moving to Christmas Island where she worked and studied a myriad of amazing animals, both above and below the water. Jodi then spent two years in Mozambique, where she completed her Dive Masters, in addition to monitoring whale sharks and turtles, and helping with a new reef check program for the Mozambican coastline as part of a research team for All Out Africa.
Jodi returned to Australia, and started with Reef Check Australia as a volunteer Project Officer in 2010. Thanks to the Vodafone Foundation World of Difference Program (2012-2013), she was able to work on projects like this one, creating activities that focus on our reefs and oceans for use in the classroom. Like Reef Check Australia, Jodi believes in empowering people to save our reefs and oceans through active participation and meaningful opportunities.
Chris Gauthier
Chris Gauthier is a Science teacher at Cleveland District State High School in Brisbane, Australia. His great passion is integrating technology to increase student understanding of sustainability and environmental education. Currently he is teaching grades 7-12 Science, Math and Biology. His primary focus has been investigating how to connect his students in global collaborations, through embedding technology resulting in improved student outcomes and engagement. Based on this work, Chris was recognised for his contributions in developing pedagogy through the use of technology with a Queensland Smart Classrooms Award in 2011. Chris became involved with DeforestACTION in 2011, and has been engaging his students since in collaborative learning related to deforestation and environmental sustainability using innovative online educational resources, social media and technology based tools.
Chris has shared this work most notably in 2012 where he and Dr Willie Smits lead the closing keynote address at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) at the annual conference in San Diego. Originally from Waterloo Canada, Chris completed his Honours Bachelor Degree in Science, majoring in Zoology, from Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario and his Graduate Diploma in Education at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland Australia. With his passion in sustainability and global education, Chris is currently undertaking his Master's in Education (global education) from the University of Tasmania through a bursary with the Global Education Project, the Global Learning Centre in Brisbane and AusAID as a Global Teaching Advocate.
The REEFSearch educational guide would not have been possible without the guidance and assistance from several people.
Thank you to:
• Craig Reid, Science Teacher.
• Heather Gauthier (Pre-service teacher from the University of Western Ontario)
• Sheree Bell (Marine Teachers Association of Queensland, Teacher at Mathew Flinders Anglican College)
• Taking it Global (www.tig.org) for the use of their Action Guide resources
The REEFSearch Marine Education Kit is supported by Reef Check Australia, through funding from E.Robert and Allison L. Hayles charitable Trust managed by Perpetual; Vodafone Foundation Australia, and NRMA Insurance.
