1985 MESA Foundation conference papers
ISBN : 08 949 042 03 X
Published Date : 01 March 1986
Product Code : 1985 BSMSP
Format : Free PDF for download
National Marine Educators Conference Proceedings - November 29th - December 1st 1985 Gold Coast Queensland 1985
The conference followed on from a successful meeting of marine educators hosted by the Queenscliffe Marine Studies Centre in 1984 - see photo left.
Teachers Information
WELCOMING ADDRESS
by Dr L. S. Hammond, Director , Victorian Institute of Marine Sciences
This address, delivered at the kind invitation of Bob Moffatt represents an opportunity for you to commence this meeting with a sense of the recent history of marine education in Australia, and of the events leading up to this meeting.
A workshop at this time last year, organized by the Victorian Institute of Marine Sciences at its Marine Studies Centre at Queenscliff, was the first time marine educators from around Australia had come together to discuss their work. That workshop showed us that there was a need for marine educators to get together, to talk and enthuse, and to exchange information and assist one another.
The Queenscliff gathering was altogether a very cathartic and very productive time, and though very much smaller than the meeting we will have over the next two days, it showed us the way and gave us the confidence to push on to greater things. I'm sure that, at this meeting, we'll again capture that same enthusiasm and excitement.
Several characteristics of marine education in Australia were evident at the previous workshop. Most striking was the diversity of activities, of motivations, and of organizations.
Programmes were being run by state bodies, federal bodies, private organizations and a few quangos as well. Some were school-based, others were conducted at special field centres or even on ocean-going vessels.
They were aimed at schools, at special interest groups and at the general community. They sought to impart formal knowledge about the sea, to promote an awareness and appreciation of the marine environment, and to teach special maritime skills.
Some were vocationally oriented, others were value-oriented. We will experience this diversity again during the next 2 days, but to help us focus on issues, the organizers have given a "vocational" theme to much of the present meeting.
This will not be to the exclusion of other aspects of marine studies, for we probably all recognize that the diversity of our endeavours is perhaps their major strength.
There were no grand recommendations the last time we met.
Rather, the participants in the Queenscliff Workshop resolved to continue to communicate, to exchange materials and resources, to publicize marine education, to meet again, and to form some sort of national grouping.
The first four of these resolutions were met during 1985 in various ways:
- by the publication of an occasional newsletter by VIM's Marine Studies Centre at Queenscliff,
- by the development of an embryonic resource bank at that Centre,
- by the publication of various articles and reports on marine education, and by the convening of this meeting by Bob Moffatt.
We hope that the fifth resolution may be met at the conclusion of this meeting.
I commend to you the programme that has been devised by the organizers for the next two days. We will be asked to progress from setting the scene, to reviewing the present status of marine education, to identifying problems, to proposing solutions.
I look forward to it, and in welcoming you here, exhort you to participate fully and enthusiastically.
Contents
Published by the Brisbane South Marine Studies Project
Contains conference proceedings.
Acknowledgements
Conference program
Friday opening addresses
Saturday workshop abstracts
Working part reports
Evaluators comments
Additional papers
Apologies and additional contributions
