Young SeaLs to appear this autumn at Primorsky Aquarium
This coming October Growing up at the Aquarium, an environmental education project run by the Primorsky Aquarium, will be expanded with a new club called SeaL. This name is an abbreviation of the phrase “sea of life”, which reflects the contents of the club’s entertaining and rich program. SeaL is aimed at children aged 12 to 13 years.
According to Ekaterina Raevskaya, Principal Specialist at the Education Department, club attendees will get a detailed insight into unobvious similarities and differences among living organisms belonging to different kingdoms; in particular, they will delve deep into contradictions and regularities existing at various levels of nature’s organization.
Lab sessions ̶ an essential part of the program ̶ will reveal to kids how complex the cell structure is and will even teach them to extract DNA from cells through a number of mechanical and chemical manipulations.
“Children will dive into the diversity of flora and fauna found in various ecosystems of our planet,” said Ekaterina. “They will learn about how and why living organisms evolve and will be introduced to their classification. Young SeaLs will gain valuable skills for field and laboratory investigations while testing modern and traditional methods of nature study.”
Growing up at the Aquarium is an environmental education project focused on providing knowledge of marine biology to different aged children. The project incorporates six clubs. The first of them is Belyok (the Russian name for a white-coat baby seal – translator’s note), an environmental biology club for kids aged 6 to 7. When they get older and become more informed about marine life, they move on to Sea Guardians, an ecology club for 8–9-year-olds. The third stage – Ichthyology Club – is aimed at children aged 10–11. The new club, SeaL, awaits 12–13-year-olds. Teenagers aged 14–17 wishing to try their hand at real scientific research attend classes at AQUAlaboratory. Those youngsters who want to undertake investigation on their own but need assistance from an advisor join Researcher, a club for children of all ages.