Tag Archives: Ocean Life Education

Have Tank will Travel

Usually our sea animals bask in the 5 star luxury of their home tanks on the Sunshine Coast, where everything is carefully monitored to create an optimum environment, but when they hit the road to educate our next generation of ocean lovers, things get a little more tricky.

Our touch tanks are a home away from home for our animal ambassadors and we work hard to ensure things are as stress free as possible while they play a vital role in helping children understand and appreciate the aquatic world.

They travel all over Brisbane and the rest of South East Queensland, visiting early learning centres, schools and shopping centres, giving youngsters the opportunity to get up close and personal with these exotic creatures.

Under careful supervision, children are able to gently interact with our sea stars, sea cucumbers and spiny urchins, using our one finger touch policy that ensures our animals remain relatively undisturbed while cocooned in their cases.

To protect both animal and young enthusiast, our baby sharks are carefully contained in see through containers which allow for thorough inspection without causing damage.

Likewise, the colourful tropical sea cucumbers have such delicate feeding tentacles, they need to be kept clear of probing fingers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9VrClr6maY

But the fresh water turtles are only too willing to subject themselves to some soothing shell massage, all in the name of fostering a greater human/animal relationship.

We limit the amount of time our animal ambassadors spend away from their homes, rotating our starfish, cucumbers, urchins, sharks and turtles to make sure they are well rested and fed before embarking on their next mission to help save the oceans.

Marine Biologist for a Day

Over the past few years, hundreds of primary schoolers have enjoyed our holiday sessions that inspire them to care for the ocean – now it’s time for the high schoolers to get in on the action.

Due to popular demand, our Marine Biologist for a Day program has been adapted to cater for an older audience who want a more in depth look at the world of marine science.

Students will have the chance to examine in detail our impact on the ocean including environmental stress on coral reef systems, water acidification and plastic pollution. We will discuss a wide range of ideas on how to better care for the health of our seas.

The aim of the program is to making learning fun and relevant, examining animal classification to discover how each creature fits into the aquatic world.

The program will be very interactive, with students observing the dissection of a dead fish to reveal the organ make-up and development of a mullet.

And our most popular feature will still be included – the chance to gently touch our living sea creatures – an opportunity that never gets old at any age!

This program will provide a valuable insight to the workings of the aquatic world for any high schooler who has a passion for the ocean or is considering a career in marine sciences.

But we haven’t forgotten the younger students – our classic Marine Biologist for a Day will still be running in school holidays – we’re just expanding the program to grow with your kids.

For more details check out https://www.oceanlifeeducation.com.au/programs/marine-biologist-for-a-day/

Richard talks Shark feeding habits with Ten’s Totally Wild

Summer is rapidly approaching and more people will be heading to our magnificent coastal regions to enjoy a dip in the ocean. But while you’re diving the waves this summer, will you have a small worry in the back of your mind? Cue cliche shark music…da dum…da dum…

At Ocean Life Education, we love to educate the public about safety in the water, especially concerning sharks.

There’s been much discussion around sharks recently following several incidents with surfers at popular Eastern beaches. We thought this was a great time to team up with Channel 10’s Totally Wild to clear up some common misconceptions.

This week, we headed to the beach with Totally Wild to film a segment on why people encounter sharks, why sharks make mistakes and how best to avoid contact with sharks. Our view is that the better educated the public is about sharks the better choices they’ll make, and therefore the safer they will be.

Sharks are important to the marine ecosystem, we need to learn to live with them and look after them, to maintain a healthy ocean.

Richard’s Safe Swimming Tips this Summer

Don’t swim too early in the morning, too late in the afternoon or at night.
Don’t swim in dark or murky water, especially near rivers or estuaries.
Don’t swim at beaches near rivers after heavy rainfall.
Don’t swim in areas where sharks are known to visit.
Swim between the flags, where lifesavers are watching out. There is a reason for where they put the flags and when they open and close the beach.
Understand sharks, be educated and mark responsible choices when and where to go into the water.

The Sunshine Coast Daily were aware of us filming the segment and thought the timing was right to put an article in last Tuesday’s paper to help spread the message.

Sunshine Coast Daily pg7 Tuesday, 24 November 2015

Read the full article on the Sunshine Coast Daily website.

The filming with Totally Wild went well and we will let you know when it’s going to air. Keep an eye out on our Facebook page.

My only reservation – the SC Daily could have used more touch up flare on the picture of yours truly in the paper!

Richard C.

Why our approach to curriculum connection has never been so important

By Richard Coward

Understanding our surrounding environment, our impact upon it and why we need to protect it has never been more important.

Fortunately, the Australian Curriculum is moving toward an improved coverage of key concepts and understanding within biological and Earth sciences across all primary year levels.

Ocean Life Education offers a fantastic opportunity for teachers to use our programs as a learning resource that is engaging, providing meaningful interactive learning whilst linking to related curriculum modules.

Our approach, is to bring key concepts together giving students a better understanding of the bigger picture.

We help students understand animals and their given habitat, how they differ from other animals, why they look and feel the way they do, what their importance is to the environment they live in, what problems humans create for them and why we need to look after them and their habitats.

For example, sea stars have a tough flat body to protect them from their harsh habitat (the shallow foreshore). They belong to a group of animals called ‘Echinoderms’ as they have tube feet and pump water around their body not blood to keep them alive. The sea stars eat algae and dead animals off the ocean floor, keeping it clean and healthy. If we pollute the water, sea stars will struggle to survive in their habitat. The problem lies in that if our human impacts result in dying sea stars, we lose an important cleaner of the ocean floor, resulting in a complexity of negative effects.

We take the approach of helping students to understand these cause and effect links to help keep our environment clean – to ensure the animals’ survival, and ours.

We deliver school programs that provide alignment with the Australian Curriculum Science strands: Science Understanding for Biological Science and Earth & Space Sciences, as well as Science as a Human Endeavour.

Using live marine animals, we provide a unique depth of engagement and understanding.

Our marine science incursions are a truly rewarding and refreshing way for students to learn key concepts set out by the national curriculum.

Visit our school programs page for a range of available programs.