WORLD OCEAN DAY 🌊 – Round Square Meeting
By Esther S, Year 6
After an early 6:00 start on Tuesday, the 9th of June, nine year 6 students, including myself, met with a couple of year 7s and 8s along with Mrs Rasheed and Ms Taylor at the Bowral Train Station at 7:45 in the morning. From there we caught two trains and a bus, around 3 hours total, to then arrive at Redlands, a school in Sydney.
Why are we doing this? You might think! Well, the day before, Monday the 8th of June was World Ocean Day. World Ocean Day is a global celebration for our oceans that happens every year. Why do we celebrate the ocean? The Ocean gives us over half of the oxygen we breath every day! It also keeps our planet’s climate safe, feed billions of people, and is home to the most wildlife on Earth! We were asked why are YOU grateful for the ocean, there are so many reasons, the beauty, the wildlife, but most importantly the way it cares for us.
Cooper and Kal shared some amazing stories with us about their impact on our environment and their connection to the ocean. Cooper Chapman is a former top 100 world surfer who left the sport to focus on mental health. He runs a youth mental health charity, hosts a podcast, and wrote a book about how simple things like breathing, gratitude, and exercise can change your life.
Kal Glanznig is an environmental activist, filmmaker, and local politician. In high school, he raised over $100,000 to put solar panels on his school’s roof, inspiring 20 other schools to do the same. He has made two documentaries about plastic pollution, with his newest one coming out this year.
Cooper and Kal started the Blue Minds program to help young Australians protect the ocean and build leadership skills. We also played fun games and heard from Taylor at Aus Map, who counts beach rubbish to help save our shores!
After Lunch up on the rooftop garden, we brainstormed ideas on how to fix plastic problems in our communities. We did this with students from other schools, sharing our ideas and listening to others really opened our eyes on why we need to save our environment.
The goal of this day was to teach the students how to build resilience, protect their mental wellbeing, and take meaningful action for the environment. It was an amazing experience and taught us all a lot about what we can do to save our oceans!