JARED NICOLL
20/03/2012
Year one Renwick Primary School students visited the Ecoworld Aquarium in Picton last Friday to learn about how penguins move in the water. They will take that knowledge back to the classroom to help them design protective jackets for the flightless birds as part of their four-week technology unit.
Nineteen junior students studied an injured penguin, Thumper, before watching her splash around one of the aquarium's large tanks.
Teacher Deb Craig said two classes were taking part in the project and the jackets were chosen because of the shocking images of oil-covered penguins that surfaced after the giant cargo ship, Rena, ran aground on the Astrolabe Reef in Tauranga and spilled oil into the ocean in October last year.
More than 20,000 birds were killed by the disaster and environmental activist group Greenpeace used some of their black greasy imprints to draw support against deep-sea oil drilling.
"We wanted to make it something topical so we thought of the Rena, the effect it had on penguins, and the kids had seen it on the TV."
The students learned about how the penguins moved while swimming and watched them in action to get a clear idea of how to create a functional jacket.
"They were very excited before we left school and they're really enjoying the aquarium."
The children will test their different jacket designs and a range of materials on toy penguins back at school.
School student Luke Abernethy, 5, said he enjoyed seeing the penguins and felt he learned a lot about how they swim after watching an injured one splash its way around a large tank.
He said he would like to touch a penguin because they looked interesting, but were not quite as exciting as sharks.
Ecoworld will have hosted more than 1000 school children during the first school term of this year.
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