Feeling an elephant snail, holding a decorator crab and dancing like an anemone are just some of the fun activities that Narooma Public School students were able to experience during their recent visit from the Sapphire Coast Marine Discovery Centre.

Two weeks ago I (Jillian Riethmuller, marine education officer) loaded up the car with a touch tank, dried specimens and exciting games and headed north to Narooma.

I set up in the school hall for the week ready to share my marine stories and knowledge with the entire school. I ran 16 Crazy Critter sessions over the 5 days and saw 350 students in that time. Each session included story telling, fun facts, a bit of drama, dancing and a lot of hands on experiences  The students were able to feel live animals in the touch tank with the sea stars and crabs coming out as the clear favourites, especially the decorator crab which students had seen on the popular children’s TV show ‘The Octonauts’.

It was a very fun week, there are now lots of budding marine biologists in Narooma. Hearing the students tell you how they want to be a marine biologist just like you is very rewarding.

The enjoyment wasn’t just for the students though. All the teachers that came along had fun and learnt something new as well. This is some of the feedback I received from the school:

• “Jill had organised all the ‘critters’ and the range of species was excellent”

• “It was very hands on which kids love!”

• “Information and dance moves and drama to present information was an excellent idea”

• “Good discussion about living and non living things which matched our science unit”

• “It was an informative session that I had not experienced before at other schools”

• “The presenter used scientific language in a way that the children still understood the content”