Reef guardians of future
By Jess Quinn and Hayley Lawrence, Year 6, Mena Creek State School
AT Kurrimine Beach on September 3 the whole of Mena Creek State School joined together with Phil Laycock from Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and his assistant for a day of learning in the outdoor classroom.
Our day began sitting on the grass listening to Mr Laycock speaking to us about how we are a Reef Guardian school and what we are able to do to protect the reef.
He suggested that if we pick up any rubbish in our school environment this would stop the rubbish from being washed into our waterways and out to the ocean.
He informed us that the major threat to our reef is marine debris and showed us photos of how it affects marine life on the Great Barrier Reef.
After that Mr Laycock gave us instructions on how to play a game using hula hoops. Everyone held hands, simulating marine life, and the hula hoops represented marine debris orbiting around marine life. This showed us how difficult it is for marine life to tolerate marine debris.
The junior class went with Mr Laycock and walked along the beach collecting specimens.
They classified their findings into groups of living, non-living and once living things.
The juniors then worked out all of the habitats of the specimens that they found.
They then drew their findings on a sheet of paper.
Sarah Taifalos, our science teacher at Mena Creek State School, commented that it was “a wonderful day of learning in such a beautiful sunny classroom”.
“It was a valuable experience for the students to collect real data that is being submitted to the nationwide database.”