June 2023 saw the start of our brand new KATS project! North East Combined Authority are enabling the KATS project to be delivered into 12 local schools…that means an expected reach of over 400 students!
Our first batch of schools are Benton Park Primary, St Teresa’s Primary, and Gosforth East Middle! This time around the project is focussed on SDG 13 (Climate Action) and 14 (Life Below Water) and explores issues of plastic pollution on marine life.
In our first session we used the VR kits to explore life below water, looking at lots of different animals such as Penguins, Sea Turtles and Sharks (for those who were brave enough!). We also played lots of fun games and quizzes, and introduced children to citizen science using a fun experiment involving smarties.
The children got to put what they had learnt about citizen science into practice by participating in the ‘KATS Microplastic Survey’ by sifting through sand collected from Tynemouth. They found lots of small plastics such as stickers, plastic cups, Styrofoam and food wrappers. We also explored the lifecycle of plastics by ranking how long it takes different types of plastic to break down in the ocean. Did you know it takes a toothbrush over 500 years to decompose?! Finally, the children got creative by drawing their own ‘Ocean Innovations’ that will clean the oceans from plastic in the future.
Stay tuned as we will be going on an exciting trip very very soon….
