Environmental education beyond the sandbox In order for responsible use of sandy beach resources to become common practice, the public needs to understand its local environment. Primary school is a great place to start. Digital Economy © Shutterstock One way to preserve environmental quality in the Mediterranean is by identifying key links between elements of coastal ecosystems and influencing zones in the region. In light of this, the MEDCORE project has employed a transdisciplinary approach by targeting selected sand beach sites and their ecosystems in order to examine what contributes to coastal equilibrium. The ultimate aim was to give local people a tool to improve the understanding of their own environment through understanding the problems related to a given scenario. In order to make the findings accessible they were used as environmental education curricula in primary schools. In this way, the gathered scientific information could be brought to the local level. Schoolchildren are a significant segment of the population since they can experience knowledge through family as well as in school. Key concepts associated with the beach-dune ecosystem were first identified. Then the children's perception was analysed and new information and scientific knowledge was integrated and discussed. Some of the topics discussed included definitions of the beach-dune environment, relationships between ecological components of the beach-dune system, human behaviour on a beach and various human impacts.
