In this lesson you will learn more about Project Manta and more about the mantas themselves.

Preparation:

To begin with you will listen to this radio interview on RRR with Dr. Kathy Townsend. Dr. Townsend is the Principal Investigator on Project Manta. She is a marine ecologist who was born in Calgary, Alberta in Canada but completed her undergraduate, Honours and PhD at The University of Queensland in Brisbane.

http://www.earthwatch.org/australia/downloads/Audio/RRR_Kathy_Townsend.wmv

What to do:

1. You are required to come up with 8 topics for a Lotus Diagram based on Project Manta & manta rays.You will need to conduct research on your chosen topics to type facts in your Lotus diagram. Some topic ideas include:

• Aims- of Project Manta
• Location- of the project
• Threats- to mantas and other marine life
• Dr. Kathy Townsend
• Challenges- faced by researchers
• Mantas influence in design & technology (e.g.military uses)
• Tasks- Earthwatch volunteers have to complete
• Mantas- Habitat/ Feeding/ Counter Shading/ Cleaning/ Life Cycle/ Behaviour etc.

2. Download this Lotus diagram template, rename & save to your folder on the server once you have chosen 8 topics that interest you:

3. Type in each of one your eight topics into a different coloured box inside the centre boxes of your Lotus digram (these are the ones around the white titled 'Project Manta')

4. Now you have colour coded each topic, go and type your topic in each outside coloured box. For example, 'Sub Topic 2' or the RED box I decided to make my topic 'Manta Rays'. So I typed 'Manta Rays' in both RED boxes. Do this now.

5. Once you have all your topics in the coloured boxes, you need to come up with 8 facts for each topic. For example, my RED box titled 'Manta Rays' has a fact in the white box outside of it stating 'Mantas feed on plankton'. Now I would need 7 more different facts on manta rays to complete the grid.

6. Once your Lotus diagram is complete, save a copy to your folder on the server, print out your page and paste it in your POI book. Good luck!

Pages to assist your research:

Facts on Manta Rays:

http://www.ladyelliot.com.au/manta/manta-facts.html

http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/topics/lh_manta_faq.htm

http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/topics/lh_manta.htm

Information on Project Manta:

http://www.earthwatch.org/australia/exped/townsend_research.html - About the research

http://www.earthwatch.org/australia/our_work/companies/brother_ew_part/br_proj_supp/project_manta_id - About the identification database

http://www.earthwatch.org/Briefings/Townsend_Briefing.pdf - The expedition briefing (it's 33 pages so DO NOT PRESS PRINT!)