For teachers

The Community Education team at the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development present you with a range of teaching and learning resources. Discover lessons and related resources for use in your classroom, activities to complete with your class in the field, facilitated incursion and excursion opportunities and professional learning sessions to extend your own knowledge of the Western Australian marine environment.

Our Lessons are designed for you to incorporate into your classroom program. They include links to Fact Sheets to provide you with the required background knowledge, Student Worksheets, Student Resource Sheets, Teacher Resource Sheets, Posters and PowerPoint Presentations. Our activities allow you and your students to collect real data on a field trip for use back in the classroom. You can also share your data with other classes and compare your data to data collected by other classes.

Fisheries Education Programs

The Community Education team offer an exciting range of Fisheries education programs for teachers and students of all ages. Our programs provide students with facilitated hands-on learning experiences focused around the sustainability of the marine environment. Staff are located in the Perth metropolitan area and also in regional centres including Broome, Geraldton, Busselton, Albany and Esperance and service the surrounding local areas.

All of our educational experiences and resources are linked to learning areas within the Western Australian Curriculum and also address the Sustainability cross-curriculum priority. Learning programs are based on current scientific methodology and data collection and revolve around three main themes:

• Aquatic biology and ecology
• Science behind the management
• People and communities

Loan Kits

Can’t get your class to us? We offer a range of free to use loan kits which provide hands-on learning experiences you can use in your own classroom. These resources are linked to science learning areas within the Western Australian curriculum.

The kits are available to pick up and drop off from our Hillarys office by arrangement (other metropolitan collection locations can be arranged on request).

Current educational experiences available to loan include:

• Camouflaging Creatures – K-2
• See Food (food chains) – K-2
• Bringing the Beach to you – Years 1-6
• Classifying Creatures – Years 10-12

Email fish_education@dpird.wa.gov.au with ‘Loan kit’ in the subject line to find out more.

Research Tools

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development has a digital library with an extensive collection of research papers, reports and articles which can be used by students, teachers, academics and researchers. Some of the subjects covered include agriculture, fishing & aquaculture, natural resources, biosecurity, maps & data, and regional development. To access this comprehensive Digital Library, visit https://library.dpird.wa.gov.au

Professional Learning

Professional learning sessions are run throughout the year and may be targeted to a specific topic, phase of learning or course of study. Session locations and durations vary throughout the year. Alternatively, we can tailor a session to meet your education requirements.