Little school of echinoderms on Mljet and Silba

“Little school of echinoderms” or “Bodljoškolica” – educational program about biology and ecology of echinoderms

Educational workshops for elementary school students have always been one of the main educational activities of our association. This year, we decided to focus on education about organisms whose importance is often ignored – we often do not understand their role – and their diversity we can not even imagine – so we started Bodljoškolica!

Echinoderms are a diverse group of animals that gathers species from the class of sea stars, brittle stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and crinoids. We often encounter them, but rarely pay them a lot of attention.

During May, we first did the Bodljoškolica workshop with elementary school pupils from the Goveđari School in the National Park Mljet where we held the workshop in the beautiful setting of the Great Lake surrounding us. Familiar with many myths, misconceptions and interesting things about these animals, most of the pupils were delighted with the “acrobatic” abilities of our sea star – and all without muscle! The next workshop was held with our already “standard” group of pupils from Silba in June. Although we have reserved a workshop for the younger audience in the center of the park, we were thrilled by the amount of interested and delighted adults that wanted to learn more about this fascinating creatures!

Education about echinoderms, what are they, how do they eat, think or move; and do they have blood, brain and muscles we will continue to spread in the future!