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Description
The project “Edumar - know to protect” promotes diversity of resources and activities for Ocean Literacy, with the concern to adapt them to the Portuguese reality. The project is directed to students from pre-school up to high school as well as educators. Together with the students, four didactic and cooperative games will be created. Two training courses, one for teachers and one for education assistants will be offered. Ocean science talks, environmental education actions and awareness through arts will be organized. The project co-creates these resources and activities in partnership with two schools, members of the Escola Azul network - Externato Cooperativo da Benedita and Colégio Valsassina. The project has the duration of one year, starting in Jan 2021. These pedagogical tools, once completed, will be disseminated to other educational communities, to promote behavioural change towards a civic relationship with the ocean . The promotor of Edumar is APLM - Portuguese Marine Litter Association and the sponsor is the Programa Crescimento Azul EEA Grants 2014-2021.
Summary of project results
The EduMar, know to protect aimed to promote awareness of the problems facing the Ocean and encourages creativity, a spirit of initiative and action to chance behaviors.
The project had three interconnected components, but with different objectives: i) Awareness raising, which aims to involve the school community and the rest of the community in carrying out specific activities; ii) Education, which aims to involve some classes in the creation of games and development of artistic projects; and iii) Training, which aims to carry out an accredited training course for teachers and training actions for educational assistants.
''Edumar - know to protect'' offers a diversity of resources and activities on Ocean Literacy, promoting a civic relationship with the ocean. The project was directed to students, from pre-school up to secondary, teachers, educational assistants and the community.
EduMar carried out several environmental education actions about the ocean and cooperation issues in partnership with two schools - Externato Cooperativo da Benedita and Colégio Valsassina and raised awareness through the arts. Together with the students, 4 didactic and cooperative games were created and adapted to various levels of education and ages (4 to 94 years old), and tested by 958 students and by the general public. Game 1 - ''Adventures by the Sea'' is a giant board full of adventures that allows the children to save animals in danger, by removing pollution from the sea. It has two versions: ''Save the Animals'' (3 to 6 years) and ‘Cooperation Island'' (6 to 10 years). In Game 2 - ''Clean Sea'' (10 to 14 years) the animals concerned about marine pollution, together managed to remove the garbage from the ''Sea Box'' and open the ''Treasure Chest'' – a healthy sea. The Game 3 - ''CCO - Center for Cooperation for the Ocean'' and the Game 4 – Peddy-paper ''Diving to Know'' are addressed to those over 14 years old. In Game 3 it is necessary to remove the pollution from the ocean and the plastic swallowed by the ''The Turtle'', by overcoming creative challenges that require cooperation and knowledge about the Ocean. In Game 4, the participants are invited to embark on a scientific expedition, where they have to decipher riddles and together discover the clues to save the ocean. Additionally, EduMar promoted 4 science talks about the Ocean given by researchers from MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre. Two training courses were conceived, one for teachers (14 hours) and another for non-teaching staff (2 hours). These trainings covered 41 trainees and were designed to be replicated.
In the future, EduMar pedagogical tools and actions will be extended to interested educational communities, broadening the contribution of APLM to change behaviour and promote good practices to protect the ocean.