Our Year 8 Ocean Explorers were an enthusiastic bunch who took full advantage of the many and varied activities and experiences this Autumn term. They started the programme with Beach Ranger at Croyde, exploring rock pools and learning about the creatures that live there. Between them found an impressive number of species living in the rock pools. The second week saw them back at Croyde learning about plastic pollution. They did a beach clean and examined both the larger items and the smaller microplastics and nurdles they found, completing an audit back at Ranger HQ.
The group immersed themselves in nature during their third session in Chapel Woods. They made a sound map, identified birds from birdsong using the Merlin app and even managed to charmed a robin down from a tree! They then embarked on a photography project, taking pictures of their decorated wooden figures hanging out in nature, before relaxing by the water from the natural spring.
In the final session, the group discussed sustainable transport as we walked to and from the North Devon Hospice charity shop. They learnt about fast fashion, how to shop more sustainably and discovered the role of charity shops in shopping second hand. On the way back we stopped at the school farm to talk about growing your own food and composting food waste.
Some intrepid Ocean Explorers and their families joined the Earth Action North Devon team one evening for a Twilight rock pooling session. They started the session in daylight and explored rock pools at low tide. As the evening got darker, they used UV torches to illuminate the rock pools and saw how the rock pool flora and fauna glow in some very cool colours in UV light!
We are all very grateful to Libby from Earth Action North Devon for running these excellent sessions for the three cohorts of students from Pilton in the Spring, Summer and Autumn terms.
