Scenes from under the sea at Mount Barker Community College as students create metal garden

A new metal garden at the Mount Barker Community College looks something like an under-the-sea edition of Transformers.

Impressively, it has been created by the students.

The garden features metal interpretations of some of the ocean’s most spectacular creatures — a marlin, a seahorse, a turtle, a whale shark, a swordfish and an octopus — which have been crafted during school lessons.

Different age groups were involved, from the Year 7 students, who designed and created the stepping stones, to the Year 11 and 12 students who fabricated the creatures.

Teacher Linda Drage said the college wanted to showcase students’ metalwork and share the history of metals.

“We created the stepping stones first with the Year 7 students,” she said. “The students were given 22 different metals.

“They made concrete stepping stones and put a story on each stepping stone to do with the metal.

“For example, copper has a copper pipe, uranium has an exploding bomb. Each stepping stone has the symbol in the centre.

“The stepping stones are matched with a write-up in the garden about when it was discovered and by who, and what it is used for.”

The project was guided by trainer John Wright, with students thinking “outside the box” to come up with their creations.

“John is a keen fisherman so I think that has influenced the theme,” Ms Drage said.

“There is room for a few more little ones which are also going to follow the sea life theme.”