engleski

Marine knowledge transfer between students of different educational levels

European coast and sea has a great capacity to provide economic growth and jobs. Sustainable blue growth is necessary to ensure healthy sea for the future generations. Ocean literacy is one of the crucial steps to ensure sustainable blue growth. In order to achieve this goal, skilled and ocean literate professionals are needed in blue sector. At the University of Zadar, Croatia, a new graduate programme is developed: “Sustainable management of aquatic ecosystems” as a result of the “Blue Smart” project financed by European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). As a part of this programme, a new course “Sea and society” was developed to ensure that future professionals learn about ocean literacy and its importance for sustainable blue growth. As a part of the course, students organized and performed 12 workshops for elementary school children and high school students, age 8-15. Workshops covered different topic such as: marine biodiversity, ocean acidification, marine litter, seagrass, oil pollution, sailing principles, integrated multitrophic aquaculture, marine food web, and overfishing. Approx. 250 children participated in these workshops. Workshops provided an opportunity for intergenerational students’ knowledge exchange and were also a great way of connecting different levels of national education system to inform our next generations about different marine issues and improve ocean literacy at the local level. Overall aim of the course is to contribute to understanding the need for sustainable management of marine resources and achieving UN global sustainable development goal SDG 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources. The course also improves the connection between scientific community and society through active participation of students in knowledge transfer into the local community.

ocean literacy, marine education, SDG14

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