Periodic Reporting for period 2 - OCEAN NIGHT (Ocean Night: helping society understand the importance of the marine ecosystem)
Reporting period: 2023-05-01 to 2024-04-30
Life started in the oceans. Oceans cover the majority of Earth's surface and are the single largest ecosystem on the planet. Billions of humans live in coastal areas and depend on the functioning of this ecosystem to live. Unfortunately, human activities are seriously endangering the health of the marine ecosystem. It is therefore critical to raise awareness of the richness of this ecosystem, its importance, the challenges it faces and what we, as citizens of the world, can do to improve and preserve it through our personal choices. With the MCSA Researchers Night proposal Ocean Night we aim to contribute to this challenge by raising marine science literacy across the general population and promoting the appreciation of the importance of the marine ecosystem.
Our proposal brings together five research institutes run fully or jointly by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC): IMEDEA (Esporles, Mallorca; this is the coordinating institute); CEAB (Blanes, Catalunya); ICM (Barcelona, Catalunya); ICMAN (Cadiz, Andalucía); IIM (Vigo, Galicia). These institutes represent the main research institutes in Spain focussed on marine sciences. A notable aspect of the consortium is that it covers a large and diverse portion of the Spanish coastal area, including a variety of social profiles. We believe this to be an important peculiarity of the Ocean Night project, which we are leveraging -among other things- to build a better understanding of the dependence of marine literacy on social factors.
Our proposal brings together five research institutes run fully or jointly by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC): IMEDEA (Esporles, Mallorca; this is the coordinating institute); CEAB (Blanes, Catalunya); ICM (Barcelona, Catalunya); ICMAN (Cadiz, Andalucía); IIM (Vigo, Galicia). These institutes represent the main research institutes in Spain focussed on marine sciences. A notable aspect of the consortium is that it covers a large and diverse portion of the Spanish coastal area, including a variety of social profiles. We believe this to be an important peculiarity of the Ocean Night project, which we are leveraging -among other things- to build a better understanding of the dependence of marine literacy on social factors.
Our project developed along four main axes: Awareness, Night, Schools, and Impact, coordinated by Management activities.
**First Year:**
**Awareness:**
- Ran online publicity campaigns (Instagram, Twitter), local radios, and TV channels.
- Created a project website (oceannight.eu) with over 10,000 visits in five months.
- Organized online and in-person activities to promote ocean literacy, science's societal role, and the EU's science funding.
- Created information panels on the project's eight themes, forming an “Ocean Travelling Exhibition,” also downloadable on the website.
**Night:**
- Organized Ocean Night activities in five Spanish coastal locations, from the Balearic Islands to Galicia, with over 4,000 participants.
**Schools:**
- Contacted local schools to promote participation in educational activities within the Ocean Night project.
- Initial list of 47 schools; conducted 12 activities in the 2021-2022 academic year and 61 more by April 2023.
- Involved over 3,800 pupils (ages 3 to 19) in activities focusing on biodiversity, trophic levels, plankton, benthos, phytoplankton diversity, wave dynamics, and scientific exploration tools.
- Workshops covered scientific methods and discussed oceans' societal roles and environmental challenges.
- Promoted science as a rewarding profession with gender-balanced visits.
**Impact:**
- Created impact assessment tools and analyzed outcomes for the 2022 Researchers Night.
- Participants showed high ocean literacy but were critical of policies and called for more R&I investment.
- Older participants viewed science and technology more positively.
- Education and personality influenced pro-environmental awareness.
**Second Year:**
**Awareness:**
- Continued social media campaigns, participated in radio (IB3, Nova Radio Lloret) and TV (La1 Galicia) events.
- Organized events like EXPO at the University of the Balearic Islands, Virtual Reality activity for the 2023 Day of the Oceans.
- Improved Biodiversity Challenge website and organized a visit to the 2023 ASLO international conference poster session.
**Night:**
- Hosted events in five locations (Palma, Blanes, Barcelona, Cadiz, Madrid) reaching about 2,300 people.
- Created an ocean-inspired Spotify playlist (“Oceanica”) with help from the general public.
**Schools:**
- Reached 62 schools and over 2,600 pupils with activities promoting gender balance, scientific thinking, and science careers.
- Developed online and material resources for schools, including a Breakout Room game and workshops on diatoms, buoyancy, and ocean acidification.
- Conducted a two-month “Science and Art” activity with INS Euclides (Barcelona), blending art and science.
- Organized the “Ocean Odyssey Challenge” school competition, awarding three schools for activity proposals.
**Impact:**
- Continued using feedback forms to gather data on activities, revealing significant insights into ocean literacy and policy perceptions.
- Highlighted the internet as the primary information source, dissatisfaction with marine policies, and the need for more R&I investment.
- Noted disparities in ocean literacy among different groups, with secondary school students showing lower receptiveness and willingness for behavioral changes.
- Events and communication activities effectively increased interest in ocean topics among participants.
**First Year:**
**Awareness:**
- Ran online publicity campaigns (Instagram, Twitter), local radios, and TV channels.
- Created a project website (oceannight.eu) with over 10,000 visits in five months.
- Organized online and in-person activities to promote ocean literacy, science's societal role, and the EU's science funding.
- Created information panels on the project's eight themes, forming an “Ocean Travelling Exhibition,” also downloadable on the website.
**Night:**
- Organized Ocean Night activities in five Spanish coastal locations, from the Balearic Islands to Galicia, with over 4,000 participants.
**Schools:**
- Contacted local schools to promote participation in educational activities within the Ocean Night project.
- Initial list of 47 schools; conducted 12 activities in the 2021-2022 academic year and 61 more by April 2023.
- Involved over 3,800 pupils (ages 3 to 19) in activities focusing on biodiversity, trophic levels, plankton, benthos, phytoplankton diversity, wave dynamics, and scientific exploration tools.
- Workshops covered scientific methods and discussed oceans' societal roles and environmental challenges.
- Promoted science as a rewarding profession with gender-balanced visits.
**Impact:**
- Created impact assessment tools and analyzed outcomes for the 2022 Researchers Night.
- Participants showed high ocean literacy but were critical of policies and called for more R&I investment.
- Older participants viewed science and technology more positively.
- Education and personality influenced pro-environmental awareness.
**Second Year:**
**Awareness:**
- Continued social media campaigns, participated in radio (IB3, Nova Radio Lloret) and TV (La1 Galicia) events.
- Organized events like EXPO at the University of the Balearic Islands, Virtual Reality activity for the 2023 Day of the Oceans.
- Improved Biodiversity Challenge website and organized a visit to the 2023 ASLO international conference poster session.
**Night:**
- Hosted events in five locations (Palma, Blanes, Barcelona, Cadiz, Madrid) reaching about 2,300 people.
- Created an ocean-inspired Spotify playlist (“Oceanica”) with help from the general public.
**Schools:**
- Reached 62 schools and over 2,600 pupils with activities promoting gender balance, scientific thinking, and science careers.
- Developed online and material resources for schools, including a Breakout Room game and workshops on diatoms, buoyancy, and ocean acidification.
- Conducted a two-month “Science and Art” activity with INS Euclides (Barcelona), blending art and science.
- Organized the “Ocean Odyssey Challenge” school competition, awarding three schools for activity proposals.
**Impact:**
- Continued using feedback forms to gather data on activities, revealing significant insights into ocean literacy and policy perceptions.
- Highlighted the internet as the primary information source, dissatisfaction with marine policies, and the need for more R&I investment.
- Noted disparities in ocean literacy among different groups, with secondary school students showing lower receptiveness and willingness for behavioral changes.
- Events and communication activities effectively increased interest in ocean topics among participants.
We plan to use the impact assessment of this project as a means to evaluate, for a future publication, ocean literacy and the efficacy of public outreach and engagement activities within marine science. The Ocean Night project gives us a unique opportunity to have a single assessment structure implemented across a wide portion of the Spanish coast with a diverse social milieu. As the project runs over two years, this will allow us to gather a significant amount of data and follow in time potential developments in ocean literacy and the effectiveness of our activities.