Mangroves Mahoot Island

Aim and introduction

Mangroves are an incredibly important habitat. They provide nurseries for young marine life, are home to unique species, hotspots for biodiversity and are a natural flood defence against storm surges. Not only this but they also store 5 times more carbon than tropical rainforests and provide food and work for many communities along the coast.

This lesson will look at the location, importance, threats and solutions to the mangroves in Oman focussing specifically on Mahoot Island – the largest natural mangrove forest in Oman.  

This lesson will take approximately 1 hour.

Curriculum links

Physical geography, including: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes, and the water cycle.

Learning goals

• Describe the location of mangroves on a global and local scale.
• Understand why mangroves are important.
• Identify threats to the Mahoot Mangrove Forest.
• Explore potential solutions for mangrove forests in Oman.

Learning outcomes

Greater depth: clearly pupils describe the location of the world’s mangrove forests drawing sound conclusions as to why they are in these places. They show thorough understanding of the importance of mangrove forests from a local to global scale. Pupils show effectively use a named example to provide extended knowledge of the threats and futures of mangrove forests.

Expected level: pupils describe the location of the world’s mangrove forests drawing some conclusions as to why they are in these places. Thay show understanding of the importance of mangrove forests at different scales. Pupils use a named example to provide knowledge of the threats and futures of mangrove forests.

Working towards: pupils describe the location of the world’s mangrove forests, there may be some conclusions as to why they are in these places, these may be inaccurate. They show understanding of the importance of mangrove forests within one scale (i.e. local, national, global). Pupils show knowledge of the threats and futures of mangrove forests this may have reference to named example but will be limited in detail.

Support: with guidance, pupils describe the location of the world’s mangrove forests, there may be limited theories as to why they are in these places, these may be inaccurate. They show some understanding of the importance of mangrove forests within one scale (i.e. local, national, global). Pupils show knowledge of the threats and futures of mangrove forests but will not reference a named example.

Key terms

• Mangroves
• Mahoot
• Ecosystem
• Habitat
• Nursery
• Economic
• Location
• Carbon
• Flood defence

Learning resources

• Teacher presentation - Mangoves Mahoot Island (NOTE: Carousel resource sheets will be at the end of this under the ‘resources’ section)
• Mahoot Mangroves Carousel Sheet

What you will need         

• ICT equipment (i.e. tablet, laptop etc) for Stations 1&4 of the carousel task
• Atlases can replace the ICT equipment for Station 1 or support the equipment
• Headphones for station 4
• Podcast Transcript - Gap fill answers (if needed)                      

Challenge and support

When completing the starter activity challenge pupils to create a question which is on a different scale to what the image is showing. Support pupils by providing sentence starters which they can choose from.

Support pupils by reducing the number of tasks which need to be completed in the carousel task. Challenge pupils in the same task to identify patterns with the information being gathered.