BENEFITS
Why Are Wetlands Important?
Wetlands are vital to Australia. They reduce the impacts of floods, absorbing pollutants and provide habitat for animals and plants. Wetlands are important in other ways as well. They purify our water and are important for recreational activities. They form nurseries for fish and other freshwater and marine life and, because of this, they are critical to Australia's commercial and recreational fishing industries.Ecology is the study of the interrelationships between organisms and their environment. Our future as acountry and a planet depends on the youth of the world educating themselves on the organisms in our environments and then deepening our understanding of their interrelatedness.
They also bear historical significance with some having high cultural value. In particular, many wetland areas throughout Australia are important to Aboriginal people. Consideration of these historical and cultural relationships is a fundamental part of wetland management.
Why Is This Wetland Important To Our School?
Our school is fortunate to be able to witness the creation of a wetland right in our school grounds. Our Thinkquest wishes to take this opportunity to investigate wetlands generally but our own wetland specifically. As wetlands have common elements we hope our site is valuable to others who are studying this important environmental feature. At this point we our wetland is in its infancy as are our studies of our uniques wetland. We wish to investigate our wetland's diversity in flora and fauna, building to a study of the impact we can all have on our environment. A full list of the curriculum possibilities as mandated in the New South Wales Board of Studies Curriculum documents are available here. Global warming, drought, water cycle and life cycles are of particular importance to Australia and the Global environment. We are in a position to conduct longitudinal studies across the school and map and record the changes our wetland experiences.
However we wish to keep an open mind about what studies may be conducted using our wetland allowing the school, local and global considerations to impact upon our research and study.