Promoting ocean education and awareness in the EU
The global ocean is faced with multiple rising threats, from climate change to pollution and over-exploitation. Marine ecosystems are degrading around the world, and urgent action is needed to protect these vital resources. Against this backdrop, the EU-funded ProBleu(opens in new window) project aimed to boost ocean awareness and literacy from the ground up. Through innovative new educational resources in European schools, ProBleu sought to encourage a greater sense of responsibility towards water bodies, inspire behavioural change and empower meaningful action to protect the ocean. “Our main goal was to help the whole school community understand how the ocean and freshwater systems affect their lives, how closely connected they are to them, and how they can contribute to protecting them,” explains Jaume Piera Fernández(opens in new window), environmental sciences group leader at the marine research centre Institut de Ciències del Mar(opens in new window) (ICM-CSIC) in Spain and ProBleu project coordinator. ProBleu worked with both primary and secondary schools, with children and young people roughly from 6 to 18 years old, in a diverse range of schools that included vocational and special education. “The common thread behind all this work was the EU Mission: Restore our Ocean and Waters(opens in new window) – helping younger generations understand their connection with the ocean and waters and giving school communities the opportunity to become part of their protection and restoration,” says Meritxell Turó Silanes(opens in new window), a biologist at ICM-CSIC and ProBleu researcher.
Improving ocean literacy inside the classroom and in communities
Through ProBleu, researchers promoted the Network of European Blue Schools(opens in new window), the European initiative that encourages schools to connect with their local water systems, and with relevant stakeholders. “The impact therefore went beyond students,” adds Turó. “We empowered teachers to lead these activities, while many projects also involved families and local communities, whether at neighbourhood, town or city level.” The project also supported teachers with guidance and training for projects through MINKA(opens in new window) (website in Spanish), and Science Stories(opens in new window) that can be adapted to the classroom. Importantly, the team could measure the educational impact of their work, collecting over 5 300 student survey responses. Through four open calls, ProBleu funded 111 school projects(opens in new window) and reached 44 countries, while supporting hundreds more schools(opens in new window) in developing and shaping their own Blue School projects. These included issues of local importance, such as marine litter, biodiversity, climate change or water quality. “We are very proud of this achievement, it was an enormous challenge,” says Piera.
Supporting ocean policy development in the EU
One of the main lessons from the project was the importance of working locally and through smaller networks, connecting schools with the stakeholders that are relevant to their own context. “This makes projects more meaningful for the communities involved and helps build relationships that can thrive beyond the project itself,” remarks Turó. Policy work continues through sister projects SHORE and BlueLightS in a series of Policy Briefs. Meanwhile, the ProBleu Resource Catalogue(opens in new window) offers a vast supply of teaching resources, presentation slides, worksheets, activities and interactive ecosystem models to support the teaching community. “One of the important lessons from ProBleu is that a bottom-up approach to ocean and water literacy is successful, but requires time, coordination and resources,” notes Piera. “If ocean literacy is considered an urgent European priority – and we believe it should be – these structures need continued support.”