Well done to the Ambassadors from St Catherines Primary School in our Kingston region. Alicia, Matthew, Rohan and Xander have sent us their thoughts of the recent coastal workshop – and images!
Read here what each of the Ambassadors said. Enjoy the pictures of the Ambassadors – this is truly what the ‘i sea i care‘ Ambassador program is all about. Young people caring, and showing they care, about their future. As Xander wrote, ‘…. we are all custodians of the Earth. We need to care for it and it will care for us.’
In the last week of last term, on the 19th September, the ISIC Ambassadors, Rohan, Alicia, Xander and Matthew visited Carrum Foreshore and learnt a lot about their environment.
The first thing we did when we got to Carrum was weeding. We all learnt why we were weeding the plants and the reason was because the non-indigenous plants were taking over the area and suffocating the good indigenous plants. The council have tried many ways of getting rid of the non-indigenous plants like using a flamethrower but they just grow back. The most efficient way of getting rid of them is trying to pull them out one by one, which is what we did. They were kind of hard to pull out as well, so it needed a lot of patience and strength. – Rohan Danaher
We did some planting along the beach and we had various choices of plants. We enjoyed the time knowing that we were helping to increase native plants in the area (native plants are plants that belong to Australia). We planted different varieties. We used water crystals to help the plants stay alive if it does not rain or get water whilst they are young and small. It is important to plant native plants as they are adapted to local environmental conditions, they require far less water, saving time, money, and perhaps the most valuable natural resource, water. In addition to providing vital habitat for birds, many other species of wildlife benefits as well. – Matthew Leary
We learn a lot about the indigenous people that lived in the area before us and how they cared about the land. We were shown the very first photos of Aboriginal people and we saw a image of their God. His name is Bunjil. He is a wedge tailed eagle and the Indigenous people believed that he transformed into different creatures. Next to him was Waa, a trickster crow. We learnt about how the Indigenous people survived, their culture and how they looked after themselves. We were told that we are all custodians of the Earth. We need to care for it and it will care for us. – Xander Kugler
We learnt about different dolphins and how scientists can find these dolphins in the Bay. We identified these on photos. Some dolphins had injuries on their fins. It was a very interesting activity. We had to identify each photo of a dolphin to the type of dolphin they are using information cards. To see these dolphins in the Bay, scientists use these technical binoculars to find the dolphins. These binoculars are very special. They have a compass when you look in them. This helps scientists to locate whereabouts a dolphin or whales is in the water. We were very lucky to have a turn to use this special equipment. – Alicia Whitfield
We are proud to be an ‘i sea, i care’ school and to pass on what we learn to others so that they may understand how to protect our precious marine creatures and our environment.
