Deakin Queenscliff Marine Science Centre

Dr Prue Francis teamed up recently with Dr Paul Venzo from the Faculty of Arts and Education to write and publish a children's book called "The Great Southern Reef". 'The Great Southern Reef' is an important tool in assisting primary school teachers in increasing Ocean Literacy in their students.

The idea for the book came from Prue and her research team performing a review on ocean picture books where it was revealed there was little representation of picture books focussed on Australia’s temperate region.

Further research conducted in primary schools showed that teachers were not confident enough in their knowledge to teach about the ocean in the classroom.

Prue and Paul got together to write a picture book to support teachers by using an easy and familiar resource for introducing new concepts to children, with a few different goals:

'There are a few hidden agendas here. Not only do we want to raise awareness for the Great Southern Reef and improve Ocean Literacy in schools - that was ultimately the biggest goal - but there were some underlying messages that we wanted to be part of the book not only for our research interests but for our personal interests as well.

Female leaders in Marine Science are under-represented, so Professor Seaweed – the main protagonist of the story - represents this and makes small ripples of change from the stereotypical ‘crazy-haired, white male’ scientist often portrayed in picture books

We wanted to make sure that the two children featured in the story represented gender-neutral children through their names and appearance. So that not only can a boy and a girl relate to the story, but also a non-binary child can also relate themselves to the characters and immerse themselves in the story.'