The Coastal Environment Centre (CEC) by Narrabeen Lagoon is hosting a range of school holiday activities for youngsters to explore tidal rockpools and the lagoon’s edge and learn about the foreshore environment and its marine creatures.
The CEC, which runs school holiday activities over the four seasons of the year, is hosting these fascinating series of activities for two weeks, beginning next Monday,15 April and continuing to Friday 26 April.
Both fun and educational, these daily group adventures, which run from 10am to 3pm, include inspecting insects, roaming around rock pools, fossicking for fossils and measuring molluscs.
Unless advertised, the programs are suitable for children aged 6 to 12 years, but hurry, classes are fast filling up!
The Coastal Environment Centre is a community learning resource and interactive museum on the northern edge of Narrabeen Lagoon. Overseen by Northern Beaches Council and geared towards educational programs, they operate from a community centre adjacent to Narrabeen Caravan Park that features displays, learning materials and on-site tutors.
Among the educational activities this April school holidays are:
Magnificent Molluscs, in which participants are guided to seek, identify and learn about the shelled creatures that cling to seashore rocks or the cephalopods that scurry beneath them, which includes clams, mussels, snails, sea slugs, tusk shells, octopi, and squids.
Junior Palaeontology, look for dinosaurs – or rather, their tiny marine cousins. Involves establishing an archaeological dig on the beach to examine the ancient sea creatures that were embedded in the headland for millennia and which appear among the shells and stones that are exposed by waves and natural erosion.
Rock Pool Explorers, scurry and scavenge over the rock platforms when the tide recedes to discover and learn about the shoreline dwellers in the small pools of water. Described as “Put your detective skills to work finding out who eats who, who has the best disguise and who covers themselves in bad tasting slime to stay alive!”
Junior Ecology, discover how living creatures and plants in the rock pools, lagoon and the CEC garden interact and depend on each other for survival.
All activities cost $74 each and young participants are requested to bring a nut-free snack and lunch, and a refillable water bottle.
According to Northern Beaches Council’s website, “The CEC was established to raise awareness of our fragile coastal environment and to teach our community how to care for it. Urban development and population growth have had a devastating effect on the coastline. Through ongoing education programs, the CEC offers solutions that encourage everybody to make positive changes.”
CEC School Holiday Program, 15 – 26 April 2024
https://www.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au/environment/coastal-environment-centre/school-holiday-program
Coastal Environment Centre
https://www.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au/environment/coastal-environment-centre
Address: Pelican Path, 1 Lake Park Road, North Narrabeen 2101
Phone: 1300 000 232 Email: cec@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au
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