More information
Description
The Algarve is a region with a privileged location with 200 km of coastline, and marine related activities are one of the essential pillars of the regional economy. However, despite the marine sector having an immense potential for innovation and development, it has not yet been possible to stimulate sustainable development that creates investment, jobs, and the establishment of critical mass in the region. One of the factors that contributes to this problem is the low level of education and training of the region''s work force. This is associated with the low rate of approval mainly in the scientific areas and the early dropout of the education system. Thus, in order to promote training and skills in the region, the Faculty of Science and Technology (UALG) joins the Algarve Center for Marine Sciences (CCMAR) and the University of Akureyri in Iceland to promote the training of school teachers, and graduate and undergraduate students from the University of the Algarve, with the view to improving the quality of knowledge transfer between these actors, to improve Ocean literacy and to establish a sustainable communication network between educational institutions in the region. This network will make it possible to enhance the dissemination of knowledge in the areas of blue growth and ocean literacy and to develop stable partnerships for the future. The training actions will be developed in partnership with the donor states, which will enhance the quality of training and establish collaborative networks with this country. In the end, we will have contributed to the overall objectives of this EAA funding call and improve the regional context and educational system.
Summary of project results
The Algarve is a region with 200 km coastline, which is central to the regional economy. However, the development and sustainability of this sector is endangered by the low level of education and training of the region''s working mass. This problem is linked to elevated school dropout rates and lack of interest in scientific areas. To solve this issue, we aimed at establishing a bridge between regional school, the university and I&D institutions and the economic sector to create a sustainable scientific and training offer to strengthen the quality of teaching and the transfer of scientific knowledge on maritime issues to the school community. By doing so, we can stimulate children to proceed with their studies, stimulate and equip schoolteachers with tools to increase the quality of teaching and expand the ocean literacy of the population. For this, we provided formal and informal scientific training to schoolteachers, developed outreach activities for schoolchildren, science communication training for post-graduate students and science activities for schoolchildren in vacation camps to stimulate their learning.
To stimulate the quality of teaching and establish better communication with schools, we provided formal certified training to 195 schoolteachers on maritime issues, informal training to 28 schoolteachers in 10 field trips and did 53 scientific talks for 1535 students from pre-school to high school levels in regional schools, supporting the work of 107 schoolteachers. To improve the transfer of scientific knowledge to schools, we provided 2 certified training formations on science communication for 26 post-graduates, supervised the professional training of 4 IMBRsea MSc students resulting in 4 new outreach activities for 558 school children. To stimulate university students for ocean literacy from their early studies, we trained 12 BSc students to develop science activities resulting in the production of 2 scientific kits and in their participation in the planning of the vacation camps for 32 school children. Overall, we provided 133 ECTS of training in this region, developed 4 new ocean science outreach activities and 2 scientific kits for schools.
This project allowed to increase the training of schoolteachers and stimulate school children for sciences and to promote a more efficient transfer of scientific knowledge produced at UALG and CCMAR to the regional school population as intended. We expanded our partnerships with the local producers and processing companies to provide children with the opportunity to expand their knowledge and stimulate some to pursue a career in this area. Finally, the partnership of BridgingAll with the CCVnE network allowed to expand the number of science clubs in regional schools, to develop scientific kits for these science hubs in the Algarve, to land the pillars for the cooperation of all institutions to ensure a sustainable offer for the incoming years.
Summary of bilateral results
The BridgingAll project benefitted greatly from having as donor project partner the UNAK. This partner has a well implemented summer school program in its institution that offered all the expertise for the implementation of the vacation camps in the Algarve. Although the regional context is quite different from that in Iceland, having as basis their summer camps structure and their expertise we were able to adjust the idea to our regional context without major constraints. Throughout the project we had to do some adjustments to the tasks that we had proposed initially, and we gained from having a partner that participated in the discussion and decisions we made. The school dropout problem is also a problem in our donor partner’s country but, although Portugal faces the school dropout of children before high school level, in Iceland the problem is only seen at university level. If implementation of vacation camps like those at UNAK is important to motivate children in the Algarve to proceed to high school education, the program implemented with the UALG’s BSc students to develop scientific kits and activities may also be beneficial to stimulate UNAK’s university students to proceed with their studies. This program gives the students the opportunity to develop products that may be commercialized and stimulate entrepreneurship in UNAK’s students.Thus, this partnership with UNAK was highly beneficial and may play a significant impact on motivating students to proceed with their studies, reinforcing the effort to reduce the school dropout levels in both countries. During this project we also organized a workshop to promote future collaborations of UNAK and UALG to allow implementing a mobility program for students of both institutions and to promote research collaborations between researchers from UNAK and CCMAR and thus continue the bilateral collaboration.