This morning our classroom was Bajo Bakery. We met early with Andy and Niomi, and our plan today was to complete our midterm evaluation, plan the materials for our school visit, and finish uploading our survey data to MantaWatch Online.

First was our midterm evaluation. We were nervous as we had not prepared for an exam, but Andy explained that this evaluation was to help us. The evaluation had two parts: evaluating our progress towards our personal goals and evaluating our internship experience so far. We checked whether we were on the direction to achieve the goals we had set at the beginning of the program.

Next, we discussed our plan for visiting local schools next week and brainstormed our approach. We began by listing all our ideas about materials we could use, key messages we could deliver, and how to evaluate the effectiveness of our education programme. Then we analysed the strengths and weaknesses of our ideas.

In the afternoon we uploaded the logbooks from our manta safari to MantaWatch Online. We recorded information about the dives from our manta safari, including what species we encountered, any impacts we saw, and details about the environmental conditions.

In the evening we went to Binongko Beach to join Trash Hero Komodo for a coastal cleanup, and to collect from the beach all the trash that can be recycled. We gathered quite a lot of trash but sadly there were still a lot of trash left behind.

Beach cleanup with Trash Hero Komodo