Educational programs that focus on humans and their relationship to coral reefs are becoming necessary, as reef structures along the Queensland coast come under mounting ecological pressure. This paper reports on a PhD research project which investigated marine education and learning with high school students in coral reef environments along the Queensland coast of Australia. The study explored relationships between the learning outcome variables of environmental knowledge (awareness), attitudes and the ecological agency skills of students who were trained in coral reef ecology in a classroom setting along with a structured learning experience of reef monitoring in offshore sites along the Great Barrier Reef in 2002 and 2003. The research investigated the question of whether experiential marine education can change the reported environmental knowledge, attitudes and ecological agency of the student participants. Some key data outcomes are presented and implications for effective marine education strategies and pedagogies are discussed concerning outdoor education and the effects of taking the students on field trips to a coral reef. (Contains 6 figures.) [In: Proceedings of the Marine Education Society of Australasia 2004 Conference, Noosa, Queensland, October 2-3, 2004.]