Twelve things to do on World Oceans Day

  1. Host a screening of the film ‘A Plastic Ocean’ at your school, as a community or pupil event; details from or

Host a Cool Seas assembly, infant or junior workshop, performance, or Big Blue day; supported by the Marine Conservation Society

  1. Create a display with your pupils, based on Activity 5 from the GLP-W World OceansDay materials
  2. Try out the activity, then use an atlas and a large world map: add place names and factoids from the activity to turn the map into a display
  3. Select and add ocean images andkey facts about plastic in the oceans from different sources, for example:
  1. Investigate plastic footprints, for examplein your classroom, pupils’ homes, or after a supermarket shop; or organise a plastic-free day with your class. With your pupils, first discuss the questions you want to investigate, for example:
  2. How many plastic items there are?
  3. In what different ways isplastic used?
  4. What types of plastic materials are used?
  5. How might they be reused, recycled, reduced orreplaced?

Information on types of plastic from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation:

Tips to reduce your plastic footprint from WWF and Plastic Oceans: go to ‘Infographics’

The Keep Wales Tidy litter toolkit is available in Welsh and English; it has survey formats, background information on plastics and litter, and examples of campaigns by schoolsin Wales

  1. Use Think Global’s Supermarket Waste Kit to investigate waste in food and plastics, with activities for English, geography and technology:
  1. Drop a virtual plastic duck in any ocean, and see what happens; follow the link from the Grantham Institute website:
  2. Find out what happened to 28,000 ducks shipwrecked in 1992, for example
  3. Investigate ocean currents using the NOAA animation NASA Climate Kids
  1. If you live near the sea, get involved in abeach clean-up for staff, parents or other volunteers:
  2. to help you set it up, you could use the World Oceans Day guide from
  3. you can log and monitor data on the Marine Debris tracker:
  4. Surfers Against Sewage also campaign for plastic-free coastlines in Wales.
  1. Alternatively, investigate litter in your local area using Eco-Schools resources:
  2. Then discuss howit is that litter contributes to the80% of plastic debris in oceans that typically originates from the land; Plastic Tide has a graphic: – go to ‘The Problem.
  3. NOAA’s marine debris site has a US-focused video; - go to ‘Discover the Issue’, ‘Trash Talk’.
  4. Create awaste plastic artworkwith inspiration from Washed Ashore, Skeleton Sea, Pembrokeshire sand artist Marc Treanoror Fran Crowe in England.
  5. Investigate marine food webs using the GLP-W activity guide linked to Marine Food Webs and Sustainable Fishing. Find out how plastics end up in the food chain and in fish, marine animals and people from especially the videos on micro-plastics and plastics in food.
  6. Try some of theseSTEM activities:

From Practical Action:

  • Plastics Challenge: KS2 pupils investigate the properties of plastics and find solutions to problems caused by plastic waste
  • Reuse or recycle: KS3 pupils investigate recycling aluminium cans and plastics

From STEM, focused on the acidification of the oceans

  • Ocean acidification in a cup
  • Dissolve a sea shell in vinegar
  • Explore marine food webs and acidification
  1. Prepare for and organise a debate. For example:
  2. there is a new UK tax on sugary drinks. Should the Welsh Government start taxing plastic waste?
  3. should we stop using plastic in our school/community?

For support on setting up a debate:

UK Parliamentprimary debating resource and secondary Get Debating

Newsround:

  1. Explore the Great Barrier Reefwith a virtual dive in Google Street View
  2. Then investigate coral reefs with Teach Ocean Science webquests and short hands-on activities or one of the suggestions in GLP-WActivity 7.

GLP © Crown Copyright