Objectives

With this tool, students are expected to: 

- Understand the threats to ocean systems, such as pollution and recognize and know how to explain the fragility of many ocean ecosystems (cognitive dimension of SDG14)

- Show people the impact of humanity on the oceans and to know microplastics, their origin and the consequences of their presence in the marine environment (socio-emotional dimension of SDG14)

- Campaign for the protection of marine areas, based on science, raising awareness of the need to reduce plastic production and consumption (behavioural dimension of SDG14)

Activity details

Pupils do a visit to the local beach in order to participate in a beach cleaning action.

In this field visit, in addition to garbage collection and analysis, they carry out a sand sample collection from the high tide zone according to the experimental protocol (annexed) that they will then follow in the school science/laboratory room for the looking for microplastics on the beach sand.

Material

Attached news about ocean pollution World Economic Forum.

CIIMAR's Sea Change - Our Ocean Our Health experimental protocol attached (material covered by the Creative Commons license).

Beach sand at high tide collected during a field visit.

Laboratory material

Computer or mobile phone

Padlet

Duration

Three sessions:

1st session: one day for the beach cleaning operation.

2nd session: 2x50 ’application of the experimental protocol“ What does the sand hide? ”

3rd session: Conducting an awareness campaign based on the results obtained in the

previous sessions from a padlet.

FIRST MOMENT

Analyse with pupils information from studies of the World Economic Forum that suggest that, in 2050, the weight of plastics in rivers and oceans will be greater than the weight of fish, if we do not change the way we consume and produce plastics.

Consult news from the attached links to the World Economic Forum.

SECOND MOMENT

Participate with the support of local government, a NGO or a movement (another partner entity (e.g., Museu de Ciência Viva [Living Science Museum]) in an collective action to clean up beaches.

Upon arrival at the beach, collect the sand sample in the area of ​​the high tide line according to the experimental protocol attached and photograph the area to be cleaned.

Then, organise the beach cleaning, dividing pupils into groups of 3 people with protective material (gloves and masks) and utensils suitable for collection in order to cover the desired/authorised extent of cleaning.

Photograph the beach at the exit in the area after the cleaning action, as well as the garbage collected.

THIRD MOMENT

The sand collected will be analysed in the Natural Sciences class, proceeding with the application proposed in the experimental protocol.

FOURTH MOMENT

Disseminate the conclusions resulting from this action at the macro and micro level in a padlet to the educational community.

Tips for the teacher

1) Print the experimental protocols, there must be at least one per group;

2) Ask local government partners and other entities to provide the necessary material for the beach cleaning action.

Debriefing

Inform and share with the partners all the steps taken by giving the link to the padlet created for that purpose.

Follow-up/Inspiration for the future

- Compare the results obtained with other similar initiatives, for example the UNEP Life below water - Marine litter

- Associate this action with existing movements, for example #CleanSeas 

References/Further reading

https://www.unenvironment.org/explore-topics/sustainable-development-goals/why-do-sustainable-development-goals-matter/goal-14  

http://cdn.worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/2017/05/WED-Lewis-Pugh-Marine-Litter-Lesson-Plan-Final.pdf  

Annex 1

Experimental protocols and reflection guidelines appropriate to the activities of the groups, whenever relevant.

World economic forum news on the plastic weight by 2050 in: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/how-can-we-create-a-world-where-plastic-never-becomes-waste?utm_content=bufferc04ab&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer 

Official reports http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_New_Plastics_Economy.pdf 

Experimental protocol “What hides our sand on the beach?” - CIIMAR nas Escolas [CIIMAR in Schools] (The access to this material requires a license from Creative Commons)