Stalyhill Junior School goes Scuba Diving!

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Staff and students at Stalyhill Junior School in Stalybridge enjoyed the experience of connecting with a scuba diver in north Queensland, Australia via a "live" video conference, where they were able to observe ocean life.

• View the Stalyhill Scuba Diving

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Carolyn: Well good morning to you, good afternoon to me. How are you all?

May name is Carolyn and in a moment we are going to go over and go scuba diving with my friend Fred. Did you guys bring your swimmers? No? Luckily Fred's got his and he's got a wet suit. And he's got an underwater camera; so we can see what he sees when he's scuba diving in our tank here in far North Queensland sunny Townsville.

Has anyone been to Australia before?

No?

You are going to love this. Have you seen the movie finding Nemo?

Yes

It's nothing like that. (laughs) Alright everyone on the count of 3, we're going to plunge into the water with Fred. Are you ready .. 1 .. 2 .. 3

Hi Fred

Fred: Hi everyone, how are you today?

Alright thanks (kids)

Did you hear me??

Yes

Give me a big g'day if you can hear me.

G'day (kids)

Aw, G'day how are you ? well - welcome to Reef HQ in North Queensland Australia. My name is Fred and I'll be your diver for today and im currently kneeling on the bottom of our tank at Reef HQ and this tank is as big as 10 Olympic sized swimming pools so in this tank here there is 2 ½ million litres of water and just to tell you a little bit about the equipment that im wearing today. Here on my face I have a full glass mask and here in my mouth is a little speaker that's picking up my voice all the way to you there in England. Here in my ear, I have a little earpiece which brings your voice all the way to me here in Australia.

Now, my friend today, his name is Dan and he's got an underwater camera at the moment. And that camera is beaming all the pictures of the beautiful sea creatures you can see today during your reef video conference. So does anyone have any questions they want to ask me about the Great Barrier Reef?

Girl: Are there any problems when you go diving?

Fred: First of all you should always remember that you should go diving never on your own, that's why im here today with my friend Dan, he's my dive buddy. He's here to look after me and I'm here to look after him. So you should always go diving with a friend. Also you should make sure you've got the right conditions to go diving, you don't want to go on those stormy days or when there are strong currents that might sweep you out into the ocean. And you should also plan your dive very stringently so that you only dive safely, don't stay down too long and make sure you've got enough air in your tank to do what you want to do. So there are lots of things to consider when you go diving.

Girl: What's the most dangerous species of fish?

Fred: Sharks with big teeth seem to be the scariest, but the most dangerous fish is a piranha but something more dangerous than that doesn't even have a backbone or even teeth and is made of soft white jelly and it's known as a box jelly fish. The box jelly fish is the most poisonous animal on the planet earth. The venom of a box jelly fish is the most poisonous of any creature and is found in the oceans of the barrier reef in the summer months when people are likely to go swimming. And in Australia every year, there are people stung by box jelly fish and are made very, very sick and some people actually die after being stung. So I would say as far as the most dangerous animal on the reef it would have to be the box jelly fish.

I hope you've learned a lot about the reef and I hope you've learned what a beautiful place the reef is, and it should be enjoyed by everyone not just Australians but the whole world. If you're ever in Australia you should drop in and say hello to us here at Reef HQ because we'd love to see you up here in Queensland. Have a really nice day and bye for now.

Kids: Bye!

Fred: Bye now!

Carolyn: Well as Fred said thanks for joining us today, your teacher has my email address and you can send me an email and I'll be happy to answer your questions. Did you guys have fun today?

Kids: Yes!

Carolyn: Awesome! It was a pleasure, everybody! Have a great day!

Kids: Bye!

Nathan: I thought it was amazing to see all the different types of underwater creatures and I used to be quite a fan of diving, but I really want to now because I can see stuff of my own.

Joanna Gorton (parent): My own daughter is particularly interested in fish, conservation and anything that's going on in the world. She's very concerned about the environment and I thought it was marvellous that she was able to ask questions on those particular issues.

Eleanor: I think it's really good because it's educational, but you still get to have fun and you're talking to people that are a long way off in Australia. I'd never be able to do that again and hopefully other people will get to do it and learn as much as we did.

Head teacher: School visits have always been an intrical part of our curriculum, so we make sure we give them as many different trips that compliment our work in school. But this I think will add to that possibility and take us possibly places we couldn't afford to visit. We can see so many possibilities for developing history, geography and many subjects using this and I think the staff are pretty excited about it, I know the children are.