Aquarium's new attraction is youngsters' top story
A CREATIVE pupil from Vicarage Park School, in Kendal, is holding his breath to see if he can be crowned the Lakes Aquarium's Junior Reporter of the Year.
Year six pupil, Joshua Robb, was amongst four students able to quiz TV wildlife presenter, Michaela Strachan, as she unveiled the stunning, new Virtual Dive Bell at the Lakes Aquarium.
Joshua was a VIP guest at the family launch of the Virtual Dive Bell thanks to his imagination and ability to spin a good yarn. He entered a competition organised by the award-winning attraction, writing a story that continued an opening paragraph supplied by the Aquarium.
As a junior reporter, he was allowed to take five of his friends with him, to the Lakeside-based visitor attraction, entering the Virtual Dive Bell area as one of the first children to test out its wonderful, high-tech capabilities.
Armed with questions for Michaela Strachan, he made sure he got all the answers he needed to help his crew write a report on the super attraction, before getting autographs for other classmates and taking a look at the exciting range of creatures.
The Virtual Dive Bell takes visitors on a voyage to the bottom of an African lake, where intrepid voyagers survive the charge of an angry hippo, the menacing stare of a Nile crocodile and a face to face encounter with a bull shark.
This is sure to feature heavily in the junior reporter's story, but so too will the interactive screens that give visitors insights into all three of the creatures in the lake, providing wonderful wildlife-focused information about aspects such as anatomy, feeding and breeding. Trying to elicit Michaela's help was a good ploy employed by all four junior reporters, but all were more than capable of having fun on the computer games that are also part and parcel of this 100,000 feature.
After spotting a crocodile hiding in the mangrove swamp, feeding a hungry hippo and hatching crocodile eggs, to name just a few of the things to do in the Virtual Dive Bell, they headed off for some other Aquarium fun, including craft activity. Joshua will now write up a report, which will be sent on to Michaela, who will determine the overall winner of the contest.
It's going to be a boys versus girls challenge, with the other contenders being another boy, Abdul-Karim Alijan, from Trumacar Community Primary School, Heysham, and Caitlin Wilcox and Rachel Maddox, from Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Primary School, in Carnforth.
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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