W3: Primary Research - Lyall Bay Beach Clean-Up

On Saturday morning we went to a beach clean-up in Lyall Bay.

We thought it would be a great opportunity to get some firsthand experience on our topic.

This was a good experience, but more because of the knowledge that we were doing something to help the environment and the community rather than because it was particularly fun or exciting.

Even though it was a sunny day it was very cold and super windy on the beach.

The beach was sometimes sandy and other times comprised of tiny pebbles. There were sand dunes with tussocks and other plants growing on them.

The rubbish that we found was mostly plastic like candy bar wrappers, muesli bar wrappers, lollipop sticks and also these tiny wheel-shaped things that we later found out were from the Moa Point Treatment Station. There was also a lot of natural debris like seaweed and driftwood on the beach.

While we were wandering along the beach picking up rubbish we watched how other people got involved in the beach clean-up. We were particularly interested in observing how children took to the task as they are our target audience.
The kids all seemed to be there with either one or both of their parents and also often with siblings.
They seemed to be pretty excited about finding rubbish and/or holding the bag that the rubbish got put in.