Description
Marine litter is one of the Good Environmental Status descriptors (GES) recommended in the MSFD, being a problem of large proportion and little known by society. This project intends to carry out 8 initiatives aimed at sensitizing students and population to the problem of plastic and micro plastic in the ocean, and to promote critical thinking and responsible citizenship on the importance of maintaining GES through different educational approaches, combining the exploration of science and art as tools to approach environmental issues. Different initiatives include scientific lectures and experimental activities, field trips, production of artistic objects with plastic collected on the beach and its display on the school community, the development and presentation of a play, the production of large size sculptures of recycled plastic for displays of public art, the translation of two animated videos and the creation of a life size game. This project has the participation of 6 Basic and Secondary Education schools of the Porto Metropolitan Area and plans to develop about 50 awareness initiatives, involving more than 1,000 young people and encouraging about 1000 visits to the Ocean Literacy website.
Summary of project results
The objectives were to promote and increase knowledge about the influence of man on the ocean, in particular on marine plastic waste, its various sources and consequences for marine ecosystems, as well as good practices for ocean conservation. In order to achieve these objectives, different practical initiatives were developed to raise awareness, with and for the School Community and the general public, as well as different communication products, in a close dialogue between art and science:15 Lectures on scientific dissemination in the 6 schools involved; Carry out 15 beach cleaning actions and respective analysis of the collected residues; Conducting 15 practical actions of experimental science to be performed in the classroom to quantify microplastics in sand samples collected; Production of a play about the plastic problem in the Ocean and its exhibition in the 6 schools involved and in public places; Creation of 3 large format sculptures with discarded plastics and their exhibition in the 6 schools of the project and in 2 public places of the city of Porto;Translation of two videos in 3D animation on the pollution of the oceans by plastics to Portuguese, through the agreement already established with the entities OceanCare and ItsAPlasticWorld; Production of a full-size game about cleaning the Ocean for roaming in the project schools. In total, 21 practical activities of experimental science of observation of microplastics present in beach sand (800 students) and 17 scientific lectures in schools (856 students) were carried out. There were also 10 public lectures or scientific conferences (850 assistants) and 22 beach cleaning actions with the schools involved (541 students). The itinerant exhibition "Sea of Plastic", which has different artistic objects produced within the scope of this project, was already exhibited in 12 places (counting on the visit of more than 7200 visitors). The play "Pearl in the Plastic Sea" was presented in 9 venues (14 presentations, 892 assistants). Two videos were also translated into 3D animation on ocean pollution by plastics with locution in Portuguese, through the agreement already established with the entities OceanCare and ItsAPlasticWorld and produced a full-size game on cleaning the Ocean for roaming in the project schools and with the exhibition "Sea of Plastic". The Ocean Action campaign, which results from the combination of the EEA projects "Ocean Pollution" and "Sea of Plastic", was awarded the GreenProjectAwards 2016 prize, which unequivocally certifies the success and quality of the project.
Summary of bilateral results