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Meet our Scientist:

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Dr. Prue Francis 

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Dr. Prue Francis is a passionate Environmental Scientist who loves to discover new things about our natural world! Dr. Francis grew up near the Murray River, Northern Victoria so she always had interests in marine life and fishing. Her passion for sea-life helped guide her choice for what she wanted to do at university, and thus she began her journey at Deakin University. After completing her undergraduate degree, she found her calling in Marine Biology while snorkelling and scuba diving with friends.

Marine Biology opened doors to research into other areas of the environment, which then gave her opportunities to lecture and be a demonstrator at University. This is where she found her love for education!

With her new found love for teaching, Dr. Francis completed a diploma in education and became a Secondary School teacher. She was a motivated scientist/teacher and even worked at the Reef HQ Aquarium in Townsville Queensland, running interesting programs for different groups of of people. 

Fast forward to present day, Dr. Francis teaches at Deakin University and has a PhD (which is why we call her Doctor!). 

Some of her most important work has guided us into creating the following activities. Dr. Francis' research is on 'Neptune's Necklace', a type of seaweed that is quite a resilient specimen. Neptune's Necklace helps us determine if its habitat (the ocean) is in good health or not. Through the following activities we want you to explore and understand why seaweed matters and to conduct your own research and investigations into why it does matter.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People like Dr. Prue Francis help us stay informed on the health of our environment. Without their hard work and vigorous studying, we would not know so much about our marine life or the impacts we as humans have on it.

 

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Some of her awesome work!

Welcome to Seaweed Matters!

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Why does Seaweed matter? Who does it matter to? Does it impact your life? What does it look like on a microscopic level? What do marine biologists/ scientists do? What is a lab report or research paper? How can you read/write one? 

These are just some of the questions that will be answered as you explore this website. As you have learnt in the profile above, this website is based on  research about seaweed conducted by Dr. Prue Francis, a Marine Biologist and Teacher.

 

This sequence of activities is suitable for Year 9 or 10 students and teachers and follows the Victorian Curriculum where links to the curriculum can be found in each activity page in the Teacher Guide.

 

Activities include an Introduction to Global Systems, How to Write a Lab Report after conducting an experiment, developing Scientific Literacy Skills, a Stakeholder Debate and a Creative Concluding activity. 

 

Students can navigate the Student Guide for activities while teachers can navigate the Teacher Guide to assist students and find further resources. Don't forget to check out the About Us page to learn more about the creators and the References page to find any links to resources we have used!

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