June 2013

Emirates International School Environment Club raises awareness about marine life

January 28, 2014June 12, 2013 by AdaNatoli

It was a pleasant unexpected surprise when, after an exchange of emails with Jesline, a YR 12 student and her teacher Rinaz, I went to meet them. Instead of being a preliminary meeting, I found a class of students eager to know everything about the project! It was a joy to answer to the many questions that the students of the Environmental Club had about dolphins. Following this, they organised a presentation to the YR 7 students and this what they reported in their newsletter:

Emirates International School Environment Club had invited a guest to raise awareness about marine life.

UAE dolphin project by Ada Natoli

We talked about dolphins and the fact that they are mammals like us but they adapted to live in aquatic environments, and what this implied for their evolution. We learned that dolphins do live not only in the sea but also in fresh waters like some species of river dolphins. The students were amazed by the fact that dolphins are also in the coastal waters of Dubai and Abu Dhabi and that everyone can see them if they pay attention when at sea! Students also learned which species are more common in UAE, what are the characteristics that allow to recognise them and that they can now report their sightings on the UAE Dolphin Project website. Lots of things for 40 minutes!! We would like to thank Dr. Natoli for the precious information she shared with us.

Secondary school students want to take actions…..

January 28, 2014June 9, 2013 by AdaNatoli

….for a better marine environment. Since the launch of the project we had lot of interest from secondary school students eager to support the project. Kevin and friends was the first group of students that started a public awareness campaign in their school. Some students ask what they could do to support the project, some others simply take the plunge! Harriet, from Dubai British School, took her own initiative and with an impeccable determination organised three presentations for younger years students in her school. Well done Harriet! Here her feedback:

My paragraph for the UAE Dolphin Project

by Harriet, YR 8

I took on the role of being the school representative for the environment that we live in and it was my job to help raise awareness about dolphins in the UAE in our school. My first job was to research about the project and dolphins themselves, I found it very interesting and was keen to get everybody else in school interested.

Armed with my research I visited every teacher in the primary school and told them about the project and asked if they would be interested in learning more for themselves and their pupils. All teachers were very interested but because of teaching commitments not all could take part in the time given. However teachers from foundation, year 2 and year 4 were all keen to take part.

My next role was to contact Dr Ada from the project and ask if she was willing to visit our school and help us learn more. Dr Ada was fantastic and visited school on several occasions to talk to the classes and help them learn more. Each of the year groups enjoyed the talks and the feedback from the teachers was really positive. The talks were interesting, fun and engaging and at the end the children were so eager to learn more that there was a sea of hands all wanting to ask questions.

I would like to continue to support the UAE Dolphin Project and I am now considering how Dubai British School can help raise awareness throughout the UAE.

First Dubai Marine & Heritage Festival: UAE Dolphin Project was there!

January 28, 2014June 9, 2013 by AdaNatoli

[slideshow_deploy id=’1718′] We are extremely grateful to the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority and especially to Mr. Nasser Juma Bin Sulaiman, Director of the Diving Village and Chairman of the Festival who invited us to participate to the first Dubai Marine & Heritage Festival.The event was held under the patronage of Sheikh Majid Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority and Chairman of Dubai International Marine Club and took place at the Umm Suqeim beach from April 13 to 20, 2013.

The event aimed to celebrate and revive the Dubai marine cultural heritage, and it was dotted with activities representing the local traditions from making fishing nets out of palm material, to traditional music and dances, food and traditional dhow races. It was an extremely interesting to be as the only research project on the marine environment, and a great platform to reach a wide public from the local community to international tourists. Many children enjoyed discovering the dolphins species more common in Dubai waters by playing with our puzzles. Interestingly, the majority of people were surprised to see a research project on dolphins in Dubai and even more to learn that dolphins occur along Dubai coastline!

We hope this event will be the first of many and we hope to be back next year with more news for the public about dolphins in Dubai.

UAE Dolphin Project in French

January 28, 2014June 9, 2013 by AdaNatoli

After our success at the LFGP annual Kermesse last March, the UAE Dolphin Project went again multilingual presenting in French to the YR 3 students of the Lycée Français Georges Pompidou in Out Metha, Dubai. The children were extremely interested and didn’t not miss the occasion to ask many questions about dolphins and whales. Thank you to the teachers to include the project in the School newsletter this month!

No child is too young to learn about dolphins and conservation of our marine environment!

January 28, 2014June 9, 2013 by AdaNatoli

The UAE Dolphin project met the KG1 children of the Emirates International School Meadows on the 30th of May 2013 to talk about whales and dolphins and what everyone can do to help our marine environment. As part of their Primary Year Curriculum, the three-four year old children were discovering “Living things”. Over 120 attentive little students listed carefully to the brief presentation that took them through what is a dolphin and a whale, how to distinguish them and where they live (including our waters!) and what everyone can do every day to protect our marine environment, starting from reducing our plastic consumption. Some parents were also present and very interested too! Here some of the kid’s artworks!