On three consecutive days, we visited the third-grade classes at the GGS Nibelungenstraße in Cologne. The marine education sessions focused heavily on plastic pollution in our oceans and the impact of fisheries. On the third day, the simple question, "Do you like sharks?" led to a different kind of lesson: How do sharks bite and why? What happens during a bite? Why did the Megalodon go extinct? How does the wobbegong hunt? What is finning?
This culminated in the final question: "When are you coming back?" We promised: next week, and then it will be all about sharks!
To conclude each day, all three classes experienced an extraordinary virtual dive. Some seven- to eight-year-old children are not yet fully able to decouple their physical perception from virtual reality, which made their reactions all the more rewarding. "Why can't I see my hands?" -- "I'm diving right now, I'm in the water... why am I not wet?" -- "Guys, feet up, up, up, there's a ray coming!" -- "I want to swim over there now!" FunFact: On Tuesday, the school canteen served salmon to the full-day pupils. Ultimately, the canteen was left with the fish untouched. Perhaps this will trigger a rethink; the children, in any case, fully understood that consuming fish is hardly a sustainable choice!
