Dolphin Research Institute
St Simons Primary School
I Sea, I Care Program - Workshop 2
Last term, as part of the I Sea, I Care program, our eight St Simon’s Marine Victorian Ambassadors had a big day out at Banyan Reserve.
The “I Sea, I Care” School Ambassadors Program provides leadership opportunities for eight of our students in Grade 5 and Grade 6. The students selected this year are Kaiden, Boyd, Erin and Sienna, Cohen, Oscar A, Kaylee M and Piper E.
There were two different workshops that we participated in along with seven other different schools. The focus was on looking after our water, learning how it has been cared for thousands of years and a chance to give back. The day emphasised the importance of our Melbourne Catchment areas and the role they play in protecting our water ways.
Major Catchment Systems: Operates across Melbourne's five primary river and creek catchments managed by Melbourne Water:
- Yarra Catchment
- Maribyrnong Catchment
- Werribee Catchment
- Dandenong Catchment
Western Port Catchmen
We had a great day at Banyan Reserve, some of the activities involved were learning about native bird calls. Also we learnt about common animals in our water ways and discussed what we can do at home to help protect them. The students inspected gross pollution traps (such as those in Carrum Downs), tested water quality, hunted for macroinvertebrates to gauge pollution, and learned how storm litter flows directly into dolphin and marine habitats.
The “i Sea, i Care” School Ambassadors Program is provided by the Dolphin Research Institute based on the shore of Western Port Bay at Hastings and we have enjoyed being part of the program this year. I would like to thank the staff involved in this wonderful initiative this year Mrs Solari, Miss Do and Mrs Marasco, it has been a pleasure working with you all.
Monica Rayner
Deputy Principal