With many kids still not back to school and adults having less time out with friends and family, we’re all suffering slightly from a lack of stimulation. This is no longer necessary, as the Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation is offering online courses for people of all ages.
They have created three new courses, including one for the little ones, one for anyone over 16, and another for the whole family. Here are the details:
Ocean Fun-atic course:
This brand-new offering is for the younger fans of the Two Oceans Aquarium. It is suited for children in Grades 1 to 3.
The course is a series of live sessions that are filled with fun facts about marine animals. Each day will feature a different topic, such as how animals play hide and seek, animals and their different homes, and how you can tell a shark and a fish apart.
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Course details:
– Dates: 13 to 17 July OR 27 to 31 July 2020
– Duration: 45-minute sessions Monday to Friday
– Format: Zoom sessions with teachers
– Live sessions: 9am each day
– Cost: R60 per session or R300 for all five, per child
– Age: Grades one to three
The course only has capacity for 20 children per session, so book now to avoid disappointment.
Zoom will be used to connect with a maximum of 20 children at a time. Educators Wandiswa, Bianca and Chanelle will keep the kids entertained with pictures, actions, songs, and arts and crafts.
The Ocean Fun-atics series is from Monday to Friday. You can sign up for all five sessions, or just one or two.
Daily topics:
– Monday – Rock pool animals
– Tuesday – Animal homes and habitats
– Wednesday – Turtles and tortoises
– Thursday – Sharks
– Friday – Wild animals and camouflage
See the full blog here.
Marine biobasics course:
This one is a more in-depth look at most of the marine animal phyla, from single-celled protists all the way to mammals, and an overview of marine algae, seaweeds and plants. Live sessions will build progressively from the simplest animals through to the most complex, thus enabling participants to build their biological knowledge and terminology in manageable steps.
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Course details:
– Dates: 6 July to 5 August 2020
– Duration: Four weeks
– Format: Zoom sessions with teachers and content on their e-learning platform
– Live sessions: 5.30pm to 7.30pm Mondays and Wednesdays
– Cost: R1 000 per person
– Age: 16 years and older
Register here.
Participants at a senior high school or first-year university level will find this a useful bridging course to tertiary Marine Biology. Anyone keen to expand their knowledge about ocean habitats and inhabitants will gain a good grounding in the founding principles and terminology of Marine Biology, thus giving them access to more advanced publications.
Each two-hour session, with a break in the middle, will be facilitated by teachers from the Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation, using presentations and short video clips. Detailed, illustrated notes and longer video clips will be available on their online platform. There will be no formal assessments or course results, but participants will be expected to do a short quiz, in their own time, after each week’s presentations. A certificate of completion will be sent to you at the end of the course.
Find more details about the course here.
Thetha isiXhosa – learn to hold everyday conversations in another language:
This course aims to teach you and your family basic conversational isiXhosa for everyday situations.
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Course details:
– Dates: 1 July to 27 July 2020
– Duration: Four weeks
– Format: Zoom sessions with isiXhosa teachers
– Live sessions: 6.45pm to 8pm Mondays and Wednesdays
– Cost: R1 000 per family
– Ages: The whole family
Register here.
The main purpose of this course is to encourage families to learn to speak isiXhosa to each other and to strangers they meet in their daily lives. Two Oceans wants to celebrate our differences and similarities as a nation while embracing our social, cultural, and language diversity. They also aim to build bridges that close our social and language barriers as a South African community.
The course will include fun conversations, basic vocabulary, phrases and songs that will improve your Xhosa speaking ability when going to the shops, petrol station or when speaking to your colleagues and classmates.
The course is designed to be flexible and teachers Thabo Sabeko and Wandiswa Jonga will include additional content based on the input from participants during the course.
Find more details about the course here.
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Picture: Facebook /Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation (Photographer: Jeremy Shelton)