Our environmental education programme offers courses for each age group from ECD to High School. These groups include the Pups (ECD), Blues (Grades 1-3 and named after juvenile African penguins), SeaStars (Grades 4 and 5), Raggies (Grades 6 and 7) and Orcas (Grades 8 and 9).
All content introduces students to the marine and terrestrial environments through field trips and activities, while focusing on maths and literacy skills. We are able to tailor course content to match current curriculums as well as offering freestanding lessons and field trips. Topics can be chosen from our Marine Science and Nature Conservation content or lessons can be built around a specific subject that the teacher would like covered.
If you would like to sign up your school, or just find out more, then please do not hesitate to contact our Education Director, Megan Webster: megan@guardiansofthedeep.org.za
Using Hahalua, the manta ray, as their guide, students of the Pups Marine Crew explore the natural world surrounding us. This ECD programme teaches 3-4 year olds about the importance of conservation through an excitement and fascination for the environment. Our sessions include gross motor movement, art activities and class discussions. We are ran this programme at MasiCORP‘s Sunnydale ECD where each session the children swim around the class like Hahalua and sing her song. We then hold a short lesson introducing marine content that aligns with the class’s topics. This includes learning about her friends, Molly the manatee/sea cow and Nalu the seahorse, during the farm animal weeks, and exploring the lives of sea lettuce and sea cucumber during the vegetables section. The session is concluded by an art, craft or sensory activity.
Hahalua’s Song
Hahalua is a baby manta ray,
and a baby manta ray is a pup!
Hahalua loves to play, she can filter feed all day,
Let’s learn along with her as she grows up!
We understand the importance of being able to communicate effectively. This is how we can spread awareness, how we impart knowledge and how we can express ourselves. In the world of science, clear and precise communication is paramount in ensuring that accurate information is passed along to others. The goal of the Blues Marine Crew Curriculum is to provide language and mathematical enrichment within the theme of natural science, as it deals with the foundation phase years. COVID-19 made it difficult to instill these concepts, and so we are working alongside teachers as they bridge these gaps, hence it was decided to pilot the curriculum with some of the older students initially. We also design programme-based field trips exploring habitats and microhabitats, learning about maps, natural history and explorers.
“The Earth is not ours. It is a treasure we hold in trust for future generations.” ~ African Proverb
SeaStars (Grades 4 and 5) is an introduction to the marine environment through such topics as Ocean Zones, Awesome Ocean Species and Roles of Marine Life. Schools have chosen to either integrate this course into their natural science subject or offer it as part of their after-school activities.
Students who are part of the Raggies (Grades 6 and 7) learn more about ocean ecosystems, by designing and carrying out their own ocean experiment during the Rocky Shore Biodiversity term, and how to minimise their impact through the Ocean Coexistence and Our Ocean as a Resource terms. Ocean Research allows students to explore (and sometimes contribute to) some of the incredible projects happening along South Africa’s coasts, as well as offshore, on our sub-Antarctic islands and even on Antarctica itself. Ocean Ambassadors encourages the students to become a voice for the environment by showing them the messages of preservation and coexistence being shared by Ocean Warriors across the globe.
Our Environmental Courses conclude with the Orcas (Grades 8 and 9) and a more in-depth look at marine science through such topics as Species Diversity, Marine Geology, Oceanography and Ocean Careers. Each student is given a personalised Ocean Journal in which to write down any questions they may have, the good ocean-minded choices that they made the previous week, potential hypotheses for projects and scientific drawings of various species. Sessions begin with group discussions surrounding the information that they have brought with them.
