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8th July 2020
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Kia ora,

Looking for things to do these school holidays? The NZ International Science Festival is currently underway and there are plenty of marine things to doing including lots of 'Wet and Wild walks' - you can watch the New Zealand Marine Studies Centre's trip to the rocky shore here on Facebook. And of course you can always go for a seashore excursion and complete a Mm2 survey! But what can you do after you have collected the data? A great way to summarise what you have found is to make a graph! As they say... a picture tells 1,000 words! 

We are always interested to see what our citizen scientists get up to so please send us through photos of your graphs and other visual interpretations to marinemetresquared@gmail.com

Why Use Graphs?


Graphs are very useful in producing a visual summary of what you have found on the shore. They can illustrate variations in diversity diversity (the number of different species found) or density (the amount of individuals of one species found) between species - especially useful for younger scientists!

Above is an example from a school group that visited the rocky shore. The pie graphs are printed off our website (they are made after you entered your survey!) The bar graph template can be downloaded off our website too - it is found here. Want to see more examples of students' work? Click here!

Comparing Data Over Time

Want to know if things are changing on your shoreline? Plotting your data on a graph can be a very simple yet effective way of investigating whether species numbers are going up or going down (remember this could be due to seasonal OR environmental changes....or you might be able to recognise different species better!) Luckily you can easily create graphs (like the one above) on the Mm2 website and we have a handy step-by-step guide available on our website here.

Comparing your data over time can help prompt further questions. Once you have made your graph, think about what it might be telling you. Is there a species that is more prolific than others? Are the species you are finding closely related or not? Are there an equal number of plant and animal species? The next step is go back to the shore and repeat your Mm2 surveys - are the same trends occurring? You could also try sample at a different shore level, different time of the year or at a different location to compare/contrast your surveys! 

Reviewing your data also provides students the opportunity to critique their work (e.g what went well during their Mm2 survey? What could they improve on?)

Interpreting Representations

Mm2 ties in very well with the New Zealand curriculum, providing opportunities for students to develop their science capabilities. Graphs can be a great way to develop skills that relate to interpreting representations or data. Alternatively, students or groups can 'recreate their shoreline'. You could cut out different species from our guides, draw or collage species yourself (like in the exemplar below) or come up with your own way of representing your data! Email us your work and we will put it up on the website.

We have compiled a resource that can guide teachers and educators on ways to link Mm2 to the science capability 'interpreting representations'. More resources for primary ages students can be found here.

Get Wet and Wild with the NZ Science Festival!

The New Zealand Marine Studies Centre have been hosting a series of 'Wet and Wild Walks' around Dunedin as part of the New Zealand International Science Festival. They are also hosting some 'Pop-up Aquarium' sessions happening with the Aquavan this week too! You can find these events on the New Zealand Marine Science Facebook page or on the New Zealand International Science Festival website. For those not in Dunedin, the walks will be live streamed on the New Zealand Marine Science Facebook page so make sure to take a look to learn some tips and tricks from our seashore experts!

Pesky Pests


Our marine pest profiles are continuing and this week we need you to spot the difference between these crab species! One of them is an odd one out and doesn't belong in our waters in Aotearoa.... Comment on our Facebook post if you think you know the answer!

Keep Up to Date with Us!

Don't forget to follow us on FacebookTwitter and Instagram at @marinemetre2. On social media we post relevant articles and activities as well as share what our Mm2 community has been up to. So we want to hear from you! Whether it is finding something weird and wonderful or simply just a great day out exploring - get in touch with us so we can post it on social media or under 'Community Stories' on our website.

Up Next....


Tips and tricks for entering your data into the website!
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