Category Archives: Schools & Curriculum

20 Teaching Activities for SeaWeek

SeaWeek 2024

 

Australia’s SeaWeek 2023 will be celebrated throughout the country from 4-12 March 2023 and from 2-10 March 2024. The initiative aims to spotlight community awareness, inform, and foster an appreciation for the sea. The theme for this year centers around Ocean Literacy Principle 2: The ocean and life within it significantly influence the Earth’s features. This is a fascinating topic and a great basis for exploring all things relating to the ocean in schools and childcare settings. So, here is some background information plus 20 teaching activities for SeaWeek 2024 that will engage and inspire kids to want to learn more about and protect the ocean. Read on for our teaching activities for SeaWeek.

Why is the Ocean a Defining Feature of Our Planet?

The ocean is the defining physical feature on our planet Earth as it covers most of the earth’s surface – around 70% in fact.

It is also home to the majority of life on earth and responsible for around 70% of the oxygen we breath, as well as absorbtion of carbon dioxide, climate regulation, jobs, food, waste removal, , marine transport, medicine, travel, recreation and fun. We could go on…

Do we say Ocean or Oceans?

Many people ask the question, “Do we say ocean or oceans”?  The answer is that there is just one ocean, which contains many ocean basins, such as the North Pacific, South Pacific, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Indian, Southern and Arctic. So, we should say ‘the ocean’ rather than ‘the oceans’.

What is SeaWeek Australia?

SeaWeek Australia started in 1987 at the Marine Discovery Centre, Queenscliff, Victoria. It began as an art competition that was promoted in all states of Australia and was accompanied by an educational kit consisting of marine activities and information brochures. Today SeaWeek Australia is a major public awareness campaign focusing on encouraging an understanding of and appreciation for the ocean and all things related to it. The campaign is promoted by the Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) – see link below.

20 Teaching Activities for SeaWeek 2024

Schools and educators can use SeaWeek Australia as a focal point for studies accross a wide range of curriculum themes. Or they can simply use the event to inspire children through fun based ocean themed activities. Here are 20 teaching activities for SeaWeek 2023 to get you started…

Early Learning Teaching Activities for SeaWeek Australia

  1. Decorate your classroom or childcare setting ocean egg carton
  2. Read an ocean book like The Singing Mermaid or The Snail & the Whale by Julia Donaldson
  3. Host an ocean themed coloring or drawing competition or SeaWeek Poster Competition
  4. Colouring-in Competition
  5. Create an ocean in an egg carton
  6. Create an ocean sensory bin with ice
  7. Make your own socktopus
  8. Paint a puffer fish
  9. Make egg carton ocean animals
  10. Organise an ocean themed incursion – why not book one of our interactive Programs to give the kids a real hands-on experience of marine creatures with our lively team of animals!

 

Link to EARLY LEARNING RESOURCES

Primary School Teaching Activities for SeaWeek 2023

  1. Launch a Plastic- free class challenge – no plastic in lunch boxes for a day, then maybe extend to a week school beach clean
  2. Create a plastic diary
  3. Plastic ocean cycle activity – using our free infographic
  4. Organise a field trip to the beach to explore
  5. Organize a beach clean (& BBQ?) with prizes
  6. Habitat and adaptation activity
  7. Classification activity
  8. Organise an ocean themed incursion – why not book one of our interactive PROGRAMS to give the kids a real hands-on experience of marine creatures with our lively team of marine animals!
  9. Teach students curriculum topics using our Humpbacks online teaching resources.
  10. Fundraise for a local ocean focused charity – on the Sunshine Coast that could be: Coolum & North Shore Coast Care, Ocean Crusaders or Sea Shepherd.

 

Link to PRIMARY RESOURCES

 

Further reading

School’s Guide to Key Ocean Events in 2024

SeaWeek Official Website – packed with useful info and resources

UNESCO Ocean Literacy PORTAL

OCEAN EVENTS 2024 CALENDAR

BLOG – 10 REASONS WHY WE NEED OUR OCEAN

 

Why Fast Fashion is a Problem for the Ocean

fast fashion definition

 

Australians are considered to be the second highest consumers of textiles in the world. Clothing prices are often relatively low and many of us get a buzz from frequently wearing new clothes. But does striving to have the latest designs come at too high a cost to the environment? Read on to as we explain why fast fashion is a problem for the ocean.

What is Fast Fashion?

Fast fashion refers to trendy clothes that are mass produced and made and sold quickly and cheaply, enabling people to buy new clothes often. In order for the clothes to be sold cheaply, the workers who make these clothes are often paid very low wages and the materials are poor quality.

In the past, the fashion industry released new designs on a seasonal basis – four times a year. Nowadays some big fashion houses release a new line every week, producing almost twice the amount of clothing today than they did in 2000. Alarmingly, many of these garments are hardly worn at all and up to 85% go into landfill each year. In Australia that is thought to be enough to fill an area the size of Sydney Harbour. So, this is obviously a big issue.

The Role of Social Media in Fast Fashion

Social media has created social shopping and enabled fashion sellers to reach their audiences (the buyers) quickly, easily, constantly and cheaply. Most of us have been attracted to make a purchase by a quicky snappy offer and most of us enjoy a bit of retail therapy from time to time. But do we actually need all this stuff, or are we just on the fast fashion tread mill and being told what we need and making purchases without really thinking about it too much?

 

fast fashion ocean dump

 

The Fashion Industry

Creating trendy clothing takes a huge amount of resources. The fashion industry is one of the largest producers of carbon, the world’s largest user of water and produces 20-35% of the microplastics in the oceans.

Materials & Ocean Microplastics

Textiles used by the clothing industry fit into two broad categories: natural and synthetic. Natural materials such as cotton and wool are made from plant and animal sources and tend to be more expensive and last longer. Fast fashion relies on low-cost materials and quantity over quality, so synthetic, plastic- based materials such as polyester, acrylic and nylon are preferred. These synthetic materials produce non-biodegradable waste that is a major source of pollution in our oceans. Each time these garments are washed, thousands of tiny fibres are released from them and travel through our water ways to the ocean. Up to 75% of ocean creatures may have ingested ocean microplastics and suffer long term issues as a result.

 

ocean microplastics

How You Can Help Reduce Fast Fashion Waste

Obviously, the fashion industry need encouragement in the form of policy to encourage a refocus on making things that last and so encourage reuse and recycling. But if we don’t buy those garments in such quantity in the first place, we can make a significant difference ourselves.

The first and most simple thing you can do to help reduce fast fashion waste is to take a step back and think about whether you actually need the item. Do you already have something similar? Why not save the money? From here you can start changing your behaviour by simply shopping more mindfully.

 

Tips for Combatting Fast Fashion

-Think before you buy – do you actually need it and put the money to better use?

-Avoid buying new items cheaply each season, and instead be prepared to invest in high quality pieces that will last

-Start looking further into the brands you buy from and investigate their eco-credentials. Do you actually want to give them your money if they don’t care about the environment?

-Be prepared to ‘make do and mend’ – maybe you already have the item, but it needs a stitch or two?

-Check out the bargains in the op shops

-Share what you learn with your friends and others

-Support charities and organisations that are tackling fast fashion

Of course, there is no one simple solution to the issue of fast fashion but shopping mindfully and thinking about what that cheap items represents and whether you actually need it is a very good place to start.

 

Further reading

For more information about Human Impact on the Ocean, check out our website for courses and free resources

Sources

nature.com

greenpeace.org

 

marine biologist for a dayCheck out our Marine Biologist for A Day Program – Ages 7-12 years

 

Our Goal

Ocean Life Education’s goal is to educate children about how our lives are interconnected with our ocean and to inspire them to feel a responsibility to take action to protect it.

Ocean Life Education Incursions in Brisbane

brisbane incursions

As Director of Education at Ocean Life Education, I have been educating children about my passion, the ocean, for nearly sixteen years. My lively team of qualified marine educators and I visit schools, early learning centres and events inspiring young people to appreciate and want to protect the ocean with our live animal incursions in Brisbane and beyond.

I firmly believe in the old adage that “you only protect what you love”. How can you expect children to appreciate the ocean if they rarely or never experience it?

Bringing Ocean Education to the Classroom

Unfortunately, many children are unable to get to the ocean or even experience an aquarium. By bringing the ocean into the classroom or to an event we are able to influence many children who would not normally get the opportunity to see marine animals in their ocean habitat.

It’s very clear that this experience is really significant to them. Interactions with the animals are meaningful as they link to theoretical learning and children are immediately engaged and fascinated. You can see it on their faces and tell by the awesome and varied questions they ask!

Our marine educators arrive with a host of live marine animals, artefacts, games and information and blend ‘hands on’ interaction with science and humour, so our incursions are very lively and fun.

 Live Marine Animal Incursions

 We have a very varied team of marine animals that generally include the following diverse bunch…

 Baby Bamboo Shark, Fresh Water Turtle, Blue Linckia Seastars, Thorny Seastars, Tropical Sea Cucumber, Black Sea Cucumber, Sea Urchins.

Children are able to observe the animals in tanks and get the opportunity to feel their unique textures and learn about why and how they have adapted to be the way they are.

We are very mindful of the welfare of our animals and the wellbeing of the children and work to strict guidelines on sourcing and sustaining live animals.

Our crew

Our marine educators are a very lively bunch, each with a specialisation in the marine environment and most are qualified marine biologists, like myself. I have worked as a marine biologist in a variety of roles in Australia and overseas. I’m passionate about the ocean and my vision is to protect that environment for future generations to enjoy too.

Meet our crew

School incursions in Brisbane

School incursions offer students a break from their usual school routine and are designed to stimulate and extend their learning experience. They provide children with a hands-on educational experience without the need for extra supervision or safety planning.

Ocean Life Education provides curriculum-aligned and captivating school incursions which are the perfect accompaniment to a study block, bringing the subject to life.  The programs are tailored to the needs of the particular class, ensuring the children get to learn exactly what is required and the school achieves its learning goals.

We cover a range of curriculum topics in our school ocean life incursions, plus anything specialist that needs to be added in. Topics might include: Habitats, Life Cycles, Human Impact, Classification, Adaptation and Animal Behaviour and we can focus on a specific animal such as sharks – always very popular!

We also have extensive resources and supporting material at hand, such as videos, activities and worksheets, and offer flexible learning online courses for children who prefer to study in their own time. 

Early Learning Incursions in Brisbane

Early learning incursions are a great way to bring the real outside world into the childcare centre. The change in routine really helps restore focus and maximises learning by giving children the ability to participate in an engaging ‘learn as they do’ educational experience.

Younger children up to 2.5 years will discover a wide range of facts including:

  • Animals have colours, patterns, shapes and textures
  • Shells are protective houses once used by living marine creatures
  • Marine animals look & feel different for a reason
  • Animals breathe & exist under water
  • Sea creatures have mouths, stomachs and legs like humans, but they are very different in appearance
  • How to handle, care for, and protect live animals

WE then begin to introduce more depth to the information and introduce the following concepts to the older children (3-5 years):

  • The importance of caring for the environment for the future
  • The grouping of living things according to their features (Classification)
  • Who eats who! (Food chains)
  • The relationships between living organisms and their environment (Ecology)

 Our Goal

Ocean Life Education’s goal is to educate children about how our lives are interconnected with our ocean and to inspire them to feel a responsibility to take action to protect it.

More about Richard

 Our Programs

https://www.oceanlifeeducation.com.au/programs

Ocean Habitats

Oceans support an immense diversity of life and ecosystems. From the warm tropical waters of the Caribbean to the freezing polar regions (and from tiny zooplankton to blue whales!), a staggering range of animals, plants and other life forms call the ocean their home. These ocean habitats (or marine habitats) provide everything needed for survival – food, shelter, water and oxygen. They need to be healthy in order to support the diversity of life within them and contribute to a healthy ocean, which provides us with many things including food, oxygen, jobs and a whole heap of fun water-based activities.

 

Watch our Habitats video

Types of Ocean Habitat

Marine habitats are divided into two main zonescoastal habitat and open ocean habitat. Within these habitats, there are numerous sub-habitats.

Coastal Habitats

Coastal HabitatsThe coastal habitat is the region from the shoreline out to the continental shelf. Most marine creatures live in coastal habitat, although it only makes up seven percent of the ocean.

Coastal habitats include intertidal zones (constantly exposed and covered by the ocean’s tides). These include:

Rocky shore, mangrove, mudflats, estuaries, kelp forest, sea grass, sandy shores/beach and coral reefs – see below for more about these.

 

Open Ocean Habitats

Open Ocean HabitatsOpen ocean habitats are found beyond the continental shelf. This is the deep ocean. Open ocean habitats are divided into layers which include: surface waters, the deep sea, and the ocean floor.

It is estimated that about 10 percent of marine species live in the open ocean. They tend to be the largest and fastest, such as whales and sharks, or fish that swim in schools. Tiny marine life such as plankton also inhabit this zone, which is often referred to as the pelagic zone – this simply means open ocean in Greek.

Food chains can be found in the open ocean: small bait fish eat plankton, bigger fish eat the bait fish, and sharks and some whales eat the bigger fish. Some whale species eat tiny plankton. In fact, the largest creature on earth, the blue whale, eats tiny plankton.

Some animals are able to travel to great depths but also spend much of their time close to the surface. The sperm whale can dive kilometers deep into the ocean, yet spends most of its time near the surface. Water temperatures vary greatly in this zone with the water being warmed by the sun near the surface and very cold deep down.

 

Coral Reef Habitat

Coral reef habitat consists of many single-living organisms (polyps) living together as one large mass. It comes in many different shapes and forms. Coral reefs are responsible for a huge proportion of the earth’s biodiversity with an estimated 25 percent of all marine species living in and around them.

Corals live with algae in a type of relationship called symbiosis. This is where two different species of organism interact or cooperate with each other. The algae, called zooxanthellae, live inside corals where they are protected by the coral’s tough outer shell. In return, the algae provide food for their host that they produce by the process of photosynthesis. Zooxanthellae is also responsible for the striking colours we often see in corals. Without these algae, corals become transparent, exposing their white skeleton. This is known as coral bleaching.

Coral reefs provide protection and are home to millions of marine creatures (as well as algae). They also act as nurseries for juvenile creatures and act as a barrier protecting land foreshores (the coastline), seagrass and other marine vegetation. So, in effect, they protect our home (habitat) too!

Coral is an essential part of the food chain and ecosystems, without it marine animals would perish – from sharks right down to the smallest algae.

Human Impact on Coral Reef Habitat

In order to thrive and support a healthy ecosystem, coral reef requires a moderate ocean temperature and clean water. Climate change is resulting in ocean temperatures rising and in many regions, the ocean is polluted. This is worrying scientists and citizens around the world. We can all play a part in helping to protect our oceans by doing simple things such as disposing of plastics carefully. Click here to find out how else you can help the ocean.

 

Mangrove Habitat

Mangroves are tough trees and shrubs that live in the coastal intertidal zone where they are able to survive in salty water. mangrove habitat They form extremely important habitats, providing protection for millions of marine animals as well as filtering and cleaning the water and the air, and protecting land from erosion.

Here are just a few of the benefits of mangrove habitat:

-Stabilize the coastline
-Protect water and air quality
-Reduce coastal flooding
-Provide habitat for fish
-Protect wildlife species
-Protect young fish from predators
-Serve as a nesting area for birds
-Protect species that humans rely on as a food source. It is estimated that 75% of commercial food caught has a direct link to mangroves!

Animals Commonly Found in Mangroves in Australia

Mud crabs, prawns, fiddler crabs, mangrove snails, molluscs and many species of fish, most common being the Mangrove Jack, Bream, Moses Perch, Whiting, Mullet & Flathead.

Wading birds: herons, pelicans, cormorants, curlews & egrets,

 

Rocky Shore Habitat

The rocky shore habitat comprises many microenvironments and ecosystems providing safe living habitat for a large diversity of rocky shore habitat animals, including:

Molluscs: Oysters, limpets, chitons, barnacles, crustaceans: crabs, prawns, lobsters, echinoderms: sea Stars, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, many species of fish and some dangerous animals such as the blue-ringed octopus and the cone shell!

The rocky shore also acts as a nursery, protecting juvenile animals and enabling them to grow before venturing out to deeper, less protective areas of the ocean.

The food chain system of rocky shore environments can be divided into three groups: the producers, the grazers and the scavengers/predators.

Producers include algae and plankton which both produce energy through photosynthesis. They are at the bottom of the food chain. The grazers feed on the producers and include creatures such as mussels, limpets and sea cucumbers. Sea cucumbers are also scavengers as they sweep the sea floor for food, picking up small particles of both producers and grazers as they go. Crabs, fish, turtles, and even some species of shark, eat sea cucumbers – these are all examples of predators.

 

Sandy Beach Habitat

There are two main types of sand:

Mineral sand – weathered mineral rock)

Carbonate sand – weathered down rocks containing calcium from parts of sandy beach animals (eg. sea stars, coral fragments, bones of dolphins, whales & dugongs, sea urchins, crustacean & mollusc shells, fish & shark teeth).

Sandy Beach is an important food zone linking the ocean to the land. Many small creatures live in this habitat, including worms and millions of microorganisms. Sandy Beach is also an important habitat for turtles to nest in and home to mammals such as rats and reptiles like snakes and lizards.

This zone provides a buffer zone, protecting land vegetation from ocean movement, wind and rain. Gentle tides may deposit sand onto beaches, while strong water movement, such as a storm, may erode sand from beaches. This means that beaches are changing all the time.

 

Seagrass Habitat

Seagrass is mainly found growing from mud or rock in bays, estuaries and coastal waters, and reaches a depth of up to 60 metres. it is the only flowering plant in the world that can live underwater. People often confuse sea grass with seaweed but seagrasses have roots, stems and leaves and produce flowers, fruits and seeds – seaweed does not!

Seagrass is an important food source for large animals like turtles and dugongs as well as smaller creatures such as sea urchins and fish. It traps food to feed on and algae grow on its surface, providing food for water birds, molluscs and other dwellers. So, seagrass is an important energy pathway, supporting the food web in many ways.

Seagrass also acts as protection for juvenile animals that seek shelter in it.

Seagrass Habitat

Copyright: Wildlife Conservation Society

Queensland’s Marine Habitats

Habitats ReefQueensland’s stunning coastline comprises a wide range of marine habitats. These include sandy and rocky shores, mangroves, and coral reefs; with the largest reef of all, The Great Barrier Reef, located just off Queensland’s coast.

For more information on Queensland’s marine habitats, check out Ocean Life Education’s NEW Habitats video presented by our owner and Senior Marine Biologist, Richard Coward. Habitats video

To book a Habitats-themed incursion at your school of centre, go to our website:

Download FREE printable HABITATS FACT SHEETS

Primary programs & resources

 

Further Reading

Coral Bleaching