WHALE songs could be heard in Cobargo Public School’s classrooms on Tuesday.
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It was the pupils in Kindergarten and Year 1, who were giving their best humpback whale impersonations as part of the activities in the Whale Wise workshop, presented in conjunction with the Sapphire Coast Marine Discovery Centre (SCMDC) and the Eden Whale Festival.
SCMDC marine education officer Jillian Riethmuller had previously visited Cooma and Nimmitabel Public Schools, with Narooma and Quaama to come later in the week, teaching children about cetaceans.
“It’s to educate students about the local whale species that we have,” she said.
“As part of the Eden Whale Festival, we want to increase the knowledge of whales we have around here.
“We know many students can’t go to the Eden Whale Festival, so we are taking it to them.”
There was a collection of whale bones for the pupils to hold, including a jaw bone from a juvenile sperm whale, jaw bone from a baleen whale, vertebrae and rib from a humpback whale and a piece of baleen.
The children were very excited to touch the bones, and were amazed at how large they were.
When Ms Riethmuller told pupils the sperm whale belonging to the jaw bone would have been 10 metres long, there was an audible “wow” from the audience.
Ms Riethmuller then asked the pupils if they all held hands in a line, would they be longer than a blue whale – to which the children thought they would be.
Once the 20 K-1 pupils were lined up on the school oval, they were surprised to find they were not even as long as a humpback whale, let alone a blue one.
Back in the classroom, gathering in a circle the children gave their best impression of a humpback whale song before being shown recordings of a real one, as well as an orca, dolphin and dwarf minke whale.
Year 1 pupil Kaylie Cox said the most interesting thing she had learnt on the day was about how there were different types of whales, and the thing she liked most about whales was how they jumped out of the water.
MARINE education officer at the Sapphire Coast Marine Discovery Centre Jillian Riethmuller has received an award for her contribution to environmental education in NSW.
The Australian Association of Environmental Education (AAEE) is Australia’s peak professional body for Environmental Educators.
The AAEE NSW branch has annual awards to recognise individuals in NSW who show outstanding abilities to raise the level of environmental awareness in the community and who provide leadership, innovation and inspiration to others thus contributing to quality environmental education.
Ms Riethmuller received the AAEE NSW Community Education award for 2014 at a recent ceremony at Sydney Observatory.
She received the award for her contribution through marine debris programs to schools, her work with the Australian National University and her drive to improve the local marine environment through research and education.
“Jillian has continually demonstrated her enthusiasm for environmental education and passed this enthusiasm on to others,” board member Angela Colliver said.
“She is a worthy recipient of the award.”