Classroom Lesson with Durlston School's Eco-Club

Overview

On June 28, 2024, The International SeaKeepers Society attended an Eco Club session at Durlston School, where they introduced the students to the largely unknown and mysterious world of the Deep Ocean. Created in partnership with Pip Hare Ocean Racing, their novel lesson plan focused on the unique species and habitats present in the Deep Ocean, and was a follow-up to their previous Educational Outreach session aboard D/Y Castello in Poole Harbour. By highlighting the unique adaptations of real-life species, they discussed why we know so little about this extreme environment and what it takes to thrive where others might not. The students then created their own deep ocean creatures, considering how they would survive in this dark, cold and nutrient-poor habitat. Key features of their designs were bioluminescence (an emission of light from the animal itself), to both attract prey and deter predators, and a supply of chemosynthetic bacteria (organisms that make energy from chemicals rather than sunlight), to provide a source of food. The session ended with the students sharing their designs with members of the SeaKeepers team and the wider group. This gave them the opportunity to discuss which adaptations they thought would be most beneficial to species living in the Deep Ocean.

We hope the Eco Club students enjoyed our classroom session and that we developed their curiosity to learn more about the largely understudied Deep Ocean environment and the unique species that live within. We would like to thank Durlston School, and their Eco Club in particular, for welcoming us into their classroom and we look forward to returning for further Outreach sessions next academic year.