Natural lessons for Village students

The Phillip Island Village School students have been enjoying a marine classroom, taking their lessons down the road to nearby Berrys Beach

So many of the Phillip Island Village School students are passionate about nature and animals, and many have a particular love of marine life.

With a run of great sunny weather and Berrys Beach just down the road from school, the school took the opportunity to offer interested students an integrated project covering a wide variety of marine biology topics. These include fish adaptations, dangerous and friendly marine animals, whale and shark ecology, echinoderm classification (such as starfish and sea cucumbers) and threats to the marine environment such as microplastics, threats to species survival and ocean acidification.

Students have been loving their beach-based lessons, which have involved snorkelling and rock pool explorations down at Berrys Beach.

They have been photographing, videoing, documenting, drawing, identifying and classifying the marine life at the amazing local beach.

Mentors have complemented the outdoor exploration with school-based lessons to explore and unpack student wonderings and findings through research, nature journaling and some guest speakers.

It’s planned to bring it all together in a student-created documentary about their local beach. Hands on science in action!