In 2018, Princes Hill Primary School has become an iSea iCare ambassador school and the following year 5 students are our ambassadors Grace Bahler, Gracie Halliday, Itsara Lee, Zara Melvern, Iris Mullan and Imani Olukhale. The program aims to equip ambassadors with the skills needed to advocate for our marine ecosystems. Through a series of workshops and excursions with neighbouring schools, students will explore skills in leadership, public speaking, peer teaching and marine environment care. Our goal is to raise awareness within the community about issues and behaviors that impact our marine environment because ‘it’s too precious to loose’.
For more information about iSea iCare and to keep updated on the program broadly please see the website- http://www.dolphinresearch.org.au/education/isic/.
We have already been quite busy this year, having been on a boat trip, which included snorkeling with marine life, and a peer teaching workshop. The reflection for the boat trip excursion can be found here- https://blogs.phps.vic.edu.au/2018/03/14/isea-icare-ambassadors-snorkeling-trip/.
On Tuesday the 20th of March, we travelled to St Jude’s Primary School to take part in a peer teaching workshop. Firstly, we ran through some guidelines about peer teaching. These included working as a team, encouraging learners to contribute, giving clear instructions and, importantly, being excited about what we are teaching.
We were then introduced to 3 different peer teaching activities, we broke into teams, rehearsed them and then taught them to a group of Prep students from St Jude’s Primary School.
At the beginning of the day we came in not knowing what to expect, and by the end it was inspiring to think we had already sparked conversations and interest within a group of people. Maybe they went home and spoke to their families about alternatives to single use straws or using bubbles instead of balloons at parties.
Early in Term 2, we will visit the Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 neighbourhoods to run these activities with you.
We have also been brainstorming fundraising ideas for World Ocean Day on June 8- http://www.worldoceansday.org/. So look out for more information, ways to get involved and help us protect our marine environments. It can be as simple as starting a conversation and we’d love to have one with you.
Gracie Halliday, Grace Bahler, Zara Melvern, Imani Olukhale, Iris Mullan & Itsara Lee