We spoke to Georgia at the National Marine Aquarium, home of the Ocean Conservation Trust, about what a day in the life of a Schools’ Officer delivering their Climate Roadshow outreach sessions is like.
What is a Schools’ Officer’s role at the National Marine Aquarium?
A Schools’ Officers’ role is predominantly based at the National Marine Aquarium, delivering marine education to visiting groups of young people, ranging from nursery age, all the way up to university students! The variation keeps you on your toes and means you need to regularly adapt your engagement style and pitch.
Ultimately our role is to educate our visitors about the Ocean and life in it, helping them to understand more about the wonders of the marine world. Unfortunately, the Ocean is currently under threat by a wide variety of issues, making it even more important that we advocate for it. By understanding more about the Ocean, we encourage people to care about it and want to protect it through pro-Ocean behaviours.
Day to day, we achieve this through running workshops and aquarium tours, which link aspects of the National Curriculum to the Ocean. Students come away with a deeper understanding of protecting the Ocean, and let’s face it, who doesn’t love a day trip to the Aquarium!
What is the Climate Roadshow all about?
In addition to our education sessions delivered at the National Marine Aquarium, one of the perks of being a Schools’ Officer is getting out and about, delivering outreach at schools. Sadly we can’t take the animals to schools! But our outreach sessions are designed to foster a connection with the Ocean from the comfort of the classroom.
The Climate Roadshow is a series of outreach sessions we’ve been fortunate to deliver to 47 schools in Devon and Cornwall for free, all thanks to the Edina Trust! This is the second year we’ve run the roadshow and it included our Energy Investigators workshop, followed by our Climate Heroes show. These sessions were all about connecting the dots between the Ocean and the Climate, helping young people to understand how our energy use impacts the Ocean, and ways we can do our bit to help conserve the Ocean for future generations.
What does a typical roadshow day look like?
Roadshow days generally start early, with a morning van load at the National Marine Aquarium before heading to the school. Once there, we set up with help from the excited students (we don’t travel light!). Students are always really excited to have a visitor in the school and it often feels like you’re a mini celebrity.
We deliver our hands-on Energy Investigators workshop to one or more classes, packed with practical activities about energy and the Ocean. My personal favourite is the “whoosh bottle” experiment, where igniting vapour in a container creates a bright flash and loud ‘whoosh’, hence the name! Each of these activities, whilst lots of fun, also demonstrate key learning points about burning fossil fuels, the impact carbon dioxide has on the Ocean, and the role of seagrass habitats in blue carbon storage.
The day usually ends with a fun, whole-school show, complete with costumes and interactive sessions on reducing carbon footprints, but the highlight is always dressing up a teacher in a hot dog costume to explain food waste, which without fail has the children in barrels of laughter every time!
Why do you think delivery of the Climate Roadshow is so important?
Unfortunately, topics on the Ocean and the Climate are not strongly integrated into the National Curriculum. This can mean that teachers often don’t have time, knowledge or confidence to cover these subjects in lessons. That’s why it’s brilliant we’ve had the opportunity to directly bring these subjects into schools. Through the Climate Roadshow, our Learning Team have been able to widen students’ understanding of energy usage, climate change and impacts on the Ocean, sparking conversations about these topics at such a crucial time.
How has the Climate Roadshow been received by teachers?
We’re pleased to say that schools have thoroughly enjoyed our Climate Roadshow visits and we have received lots of positive feedback from teachers. In addition to our outreach, as part of the Edina funding, we’ve also been able to put on some virtual CPD sessions. These sessions have given educators an introduction on how to weave Ocean and Climate learning into their lessons, highlighting resources and methods to link these subjects to the existing National Curriculum. Personally, this has been one of the most interesting parts of the Roadshow. As a Learning Team here at the National Marine Aquarium, we’re limited in how many students we can connect to the Ocean. Which is why it’s so amazing to be able to speak with teachers and give them engaging ways they can bring the Ocean into their lessons more frequently. Click here to watch our sessions now!
What’s next for the Learning Team and the Climate Roadshow?
The Climate Roadshow has now ended, but we still offer the Energy Investigators workshop and Climate Heroes show as standard engagements. Looking forwards, we’re hoping to continue with our teacher CPD sessions next year, connecting with more teachers across the UK. As for the roadshow itself, we’re in discussions about what exactly it will look like in the future. But one thing’s for sure, it’s bound to be exciting, so watch this space!