This week the team visited the Bathchalong School in Phuket. We talked a bit about who we are, where we were from, and the projects that we are running here in Thailand. After this the kids were split into 4 groups of 13 children and the groups rotated around the 4 different activity stations that we created for them.
On the first station Abby and Fraser showed and explained diving equipment to the kids. They all tried on the equipment and had fun learning about how we use it in scientific research.
On the next station Nicole and Helen used the Green Fins Flipchart to teach the children about the coral reefs and their importance in the ecosystem. How fish and other sea animals find shelter and breeding sites among the corals and why it is important to save these fragile ocean habitats and what can we do to help.
After learning about the proper use of dive equipment and the conservation of coral reefs Gregor and Emma taught the young students the basics of underwater communication. Including signs such as "I'm OK", "Something is wrong" and many signs for some of the wonderful animals of the sea, including : turtle, shark, dolphin, barracuda and many others.
To finish up the stations we ran a picture competition where the students had to draw their favourite marine life and learn the English word for them. Mel and Shion showed the kids a variety of marine life from the Andaman Sea using our Fish ID slates. The kids also taught Mel and Shion the Thai for the marine life!
The prize for the photo competition was a re-usable water bottle which was donated by Surfers Against Sewage. All of the pictures were very creative and colourful and we had a tough time choosing a winner and ended up with 3 runners up because they were all so good !
We would like to thank the school and the teachers for making this day possible, we had a fantastic time, hopefully the kids did too and hopefully they have developed a love for the ocean after learning all about it. We would also like to thank our translators who helped the communication go smooth between our team and our young pupils.
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