This year World Ocean Day has been celebrated differently at Magnetic Island State School with a focus on action and education. We were so lucky to have Sunbus kindly offer us bus and driver for the day to achieve our goal of each class going to a different beach to do a clean-up and to meet and learn from our local marine biologists.
The Prep/Year 1 and Year 2 students went to Picnic Bay with perfect weather conditions for a fabulous day on the beach. The Prep/Year 1 students joined in a microplastics search, a scavenger hunt and a beach clean-up/ sand sculpture. The Year 2 students played games relating to marine survival with Jodie Wilson. They did a beach clean-up, scavenger hunt and created art with Mrs Roper and Kris.
Year 3 students went to Geoffrey Bay where they were met by the amazing Marine Scientists and photographers Lawrence Scheele and Kaspa Blewett of snorkeldownunder https://www.lawrencescheele.com/. https://www.youtube.com/c/Snorkeldownunder
They gave an inspiring talk to the students about the marine environment in Geoffrey Bay especially the incredible octopi that live there and how different sea creatures live in symbiotic relationships. The Year 5 and students then came to Geoffrey Bay to find out more about marine adaptations from Lawrence and Kaspa and also went looking for water bugs in the creek. The students looked for and found some interesting creatures, shrimps and small fish and the marine biologist Jo Curtis talked to them about how the creatures and plants adapt to the marine environment.
The Year 6 students were also introduced to the creek in Geoffrey Bay by Jo as an important part of the ecosystem with mangroves that act as a breeding ground for fish and sharks, filtering the water before it reaches the reef. The students were involved in analysing the creek doing a water testing for pH, turbidity, temperature and saline, drawing the creek and doing a water bug sample test and will be comparing it to Gustav Creek.
The Year 4 students went over the hill to Horseshoe Bay where they were met by Bruce Hobby, a volunteer for Magnetic Island Network for Turtles who gave a talk about turtles. The students then participated in a beach clean-up, scavenger hunt and walk to end a great day.
Thanks to all the students, staff and marine biologists who made it a special celebration involving action and education for our marine environment.