Junior Marine Biology: Week 5
Did you know there is a seagrass meadow that is thought to be the oldest living organism in the world? It is 80,000 to 200,000 years old!
Thank you for joining us for this week’s deep dive into seagrass. We’ve missed you! Thank you to everyone around the world who has sent us emails, we love hearing from you and can’t wait to see your updates after today’s lessons. Be sure to email us your pictures and feedback to marine-laamu@sixsenses.com.
For this week’s class, all you need is your marine biology logbook, some coloring pencils, scissors, some newspapers and a few heavy books. There is a worksheet after Video 2 that needs printing off. Once you’re ready to get started, go ahead and press play on the first video.
Wow, who knew one meadow could extend 15 kilometers? Now it’s your turn to do some research. Find out what types of animals might live in the seagrass. Share your findings through a drawing or model. We would love to see what you come up with, email a picture of you with your drawing to marine-laamu@sixsenses.com.
Well done Pip for remembering the names of all those species, they sound like Harry Potter spells! Download the worksheet below. If you have a printer, print it off, if not you can do it on the computer. Follow the instructions and try identify the seagrass species, then send your work to marine-laamu@sixsenses.com (and we’ll tell you if you got the right answers).
Download the Seagrass Identification Worksheet here.
Now you know how important it is to protect our seagrass meadows. Imagine all the wildlife that can live in 90 football pitches. Below you will find the virtual reality seagrass film. Just like last week’s manta ray video, this works on any device, but we recommend a tablet or smartphone for the best experience.
Now that you’ve seen one of our campaign videos, it’s time to come up with a campaign slogan of your own. Lawrence’s example was ‘the seagrass is greener where you protect it’. What positive conservation message can you come up with? It can be about any topic you think is important, not just seagrass conservation. Send your conservation message to marine-laamu@sixsenses.com.
What amazing pictures from above the meadows. In the next video we are going to learn how to make a botanical press sample, but first we need to collect a sample! Go out into your garden and find a leaf or flower that you want to preserve. Make sure it’s not woody like a branch and it’s safe to handle (ask an adult for help). When you have three samples go ahead and play the next video to learn how to make a press sample.
You’ve watched Pip make her press sample and now it’s your turn. Remember, Pip’s samples were from the sea, so they were wet. If your sample is from the garden there’s no need to dry it with a towel, put it straight onto the newspaper. We look forward to receiving photos of your samples in a week or two when they’re done.
Thank you so much for joining and we can’t wait to see you next week where we’ll be learning all about turtles. We’ll be joined by our resident turtle biologist, Jo, from the Olive Ridley Project!
Remember to share what you’ve written, drawn and discovered today by emailing our team at marine-laamu@sixsenses.com or get your parents to tag us on social media @SixSensesLaamu and #GrowWithSixSenses.
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