Dive Trip 2025
Recently, 20 of our Bangkok Patana students came together for our yearly dive trip; an exciting mix of education and water adventure. There were four groups: Marci, EMP, Open Water for Year 6 and Fun Dives. The Year 6 Open Water students finished their first actual dives and underwater assessments in the natural habitat , Marci and EMP worked on marine projects and conservation activities through observing transect species activities and helped pick up forgotten trash/nets on coral grounds. Additionally, the Fun Dive group practiced their navigation, buoyancy and fish identification while exploring deeper sites.
The trip was a memorable and significant experience for the entire team because everyone gained confidence in the ocean, learnt more about marine ecosystems and helped one another both in and out of the water. A Year 13 student summed up best by saying: “Being in species natural habitats, it felt good to be able to give back by cleaning and picking up discarded items in their ecosystem. This experience motivated me to get back into the ocean soon and hopefully make a similar meaningful impact.”
Artificial Reef HACKATHON Competition 2025:
Our team created a modular artificial reef structure during the Thai Ocean Academy Hackathon, drawing inspiration from the hexagonal patterns found in coral skeletons. By offering negative space, textured surfaces and a sizable area for coral recruitment, we hoped to create a unit that is simple to assemble underwater, adaptable to various environments and capable of supporting marine life. We created an 80cm diamond-hexagon shape with rounded edges through shape experimentation. The shapes can be stacked or arranged in various ways. The design satisfies important requirements for real-world deployment, production viability with SCG technology, habitat value and functionality. All things considered, our project combines biology, engineering and sustainability to build a reef structure that is useful, ecologically friendly and modelled after the ocean. Through this experience, we were able to compete with Thai university students with a panel of highly impressive judges, obtaining the 3rd place award overall.
