Concepts like alkalinity and the density of water don't mean a lot to the average eight or nine-year-old, but one programme is hoping to bring them alive through hands-on experience.The Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) Explorers Series Water Moves programme kicked off on Monday.Now in its fifth year running, the programme looks at oceanographers and what they did and studied in the ocean.The Royal Gazette experienced Water Moves on Tuesday along with approximately 80 students from Mount Saint Agnes Academy (MSA), and Gilbert Institute.Students ranged in age from about eight to 12 years old.When education officer JP Skinner asked students if they had been to the BIOS Explorers' programme before, at least three quarters of hands in the room went up.More than 2,000 local students are expected to see the programme by the time it ends in early March.The Explorers Series replaced the Jason Project.That programme allowed students from around the world to talk to scientists in real time via satellite hook-ups and high-tech equipment.When the Jason Project took a hiatus, BIOS decided to start its own programme, and the Explorers' Series was born.“Back then it was really cool for the students to talk to people in real time via the hook-up,” said Mr Skinner. “But now with the internet and video chats, it doesn't seem as amazing to today's kids.“So talking to the BIOS scientists in person, and doing the experiments in the room might actually be more exciting for them.”During our visit, students were sent on a scavenger hunt around the room.It featured stations focused on a variety of topics related to physical, chemical and biological oceanography such as plankton, nutrients in the ocean, the Sargasso Sea and the coral reefs.At each station there were various objects for the students to look at, and information for them to read.Meanwhile, BIOS educators Mr Skinner, Dean Lea and Kaitlin Baird, moved from station to station asking students questions and doing experiments with them.At one station, Ms Baird released an ice cube with dye into fish tank water to demonstrate water density.Students watched the way the green dye dispersed in the water and learned that cold sea water is quite dense.Students carried ‘passports' which had various questions to be answered.At the plankton station, students were asked whether they could identify the animal under the microscope; a station on the Sargasso Sea asked that they name a creature found in the Sargasso Seaweed.Students seemed to have different reactions based on their age level.A group of eight-year-olds peered into a microscope and were awed by the tiny creatures they saw.When the older children took over the same station they were equally intrigued but there were more ‘eeews' than ‘ahhs'.At one station about plastic in the ocean, Mr Skinner held up a jar of water with tiny floating bits of plastic bottle, rope and plastic pellets.“Once plastic gets in the ocean it never goes away,” said Mr Skinner. “The plastic was collected during a short manta trawl, a system of skimming the surface of the ocean.”The process is called a ‘manta trawl' because the equipment (slightly) resembles a manta ray; a metal box with netting at the bottom is used to skim the ocean surface.Mr Skinner explained that plastic in the ocean broke down into smaller and smaller pieces which often look edible to marine life.The pieces are undigestible and fill up the stomachs of birds and fish until no real food can get in and the animal dies.MSA teacher Kelly Rodday said she had brought her students to the programme the previous year and then incorporated what they had learned into a lesson plan.In fact, there is a training workshop for teachers given before the programme begins, and this year, more than 50 teachers took it.“I love the set-up,” Ms Rodday said. “They really enjoy the scavenger aspect and seeing the hands-on experiments and hearing about it from real scientists. It really makes it interesting for them.”The students seemed most fascinated with fish tanks containing Sargasso Seaweed, and also tiny marine life.A BIOS film, ‘Water Moves', was made by Mr Lea with students in the previous summer's Waterstart programme.“This was a special film for us because we did what only one Waterstart group has done before we went out to Hydrostation S,” said Mr Skinner. “Hydrostation S is a special research spot in the ocean 18 kilometres off of Bermuda.“It is one of the stations monitored during the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series (BATS). The BATS programme at BIOS goes out to sea every month to collect data in order to maintain this time series.”For more information e-mail jp.skinner[AT]bios.edu or telephone 297-1880 ext 241.Parts of the ‘Water Moves' film are shown on the BIOS website: www.bios.edu/Education/waterstart/waterstart.html.