Junior Marine Biology: Week 8
Did you know, scientists say we have lost 90% of the big fish in our oceans? But so many people rely on catching fish for their dinners and their income. So, what is the solution? Blue Marine Foundation believe creating marine protected areas is the answer. Find out more in this week’s lesson, filmed with thanks to Lawrence Menz, Ali Shareef and Viv Evans in three different locations around the world.
Thank you so much for keeping us company and please keep the messages coming, we love receiving them. We can’t wait to see your pictures and feedback this week, so please email them to marine-laamu@sixsenses.com.
For this week’s class, all you need is your marine biology logbook, some coloring pencils and paper for a poster. There are worksheets after Videos 1, 3 and 4 that can be printed before you start the lesson. Once you’re ready to get started, go ahead and press play on the first video.
Did you know just how important the ocean is? Or what threats it faces? You probably knew a lot of them because you’re almost a qualified junior marine biologist. Why not take the quiz, and ask your family too? Who knew the most? What did you talk about in the discussion points? We would love to hear, tell us about it by emailing marine-laamu@sixsenses.com.
Download the Ocean Quiz here.
We know about marine protected areas in the Maldives, but we want to learn more about ones around the world. Research a marine protected area near you and share your findings by creating a poster. Once it’s finished, send a picture of it to marine-laamu@sixsenses.com so we can learn too.
Laamu’s three habitats are home to lots of different animals and they use all three habitats at different stages of their lives. Work out which habitats some of our local fish use by completing the maze in the worksheet below. Send your answers to marine-laamu@sixsenses.com.
Download the Habitat Maze Worksheet here.
For this activity, you are going to suggest where there should be a marine protected area in Laamu Atoll. Use the worksheet below to help:
Download the Laamu MPA Worksheet here.
Once you have created your MPA, we’d like you to share it with the kids of Laamu. Write a letter (you can just start it with Hello! because we won’t know who will receive them yet) and share with them what you have learnt about Laamu these last eight weeks. You can ask them questions and tell them what you would like to do if you came to Laamu. If you include your email address, you might get a reply. Send your finished MPA worksheet and letter to marine-laamu@sixsenses.com.
As you can see, Lawrence and Pip (definitely) need some help with their jokes. Please save us! Email us any you can think of, we would love to hear them.
Next week, we’ll be learning all about how we can share our science. You are all pretty great at this already, because you share your science with us every week through emails. But, there’s some other cool ways to share your science with the whole world. To learn more about this, we’ll be talking to MUI’s communications coordinator, Leanna, who edits our junior marine biology videos every week, as well as two professional underwater photographers. ‘Sea’ you then!
Thank you for being with us today! Remember to share what you’ve written, drawn and discovered 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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