Three researchers from the BIOCON group gave two participatory workshops to secondary school students to raise awareness of the importance of marine biodiversity, its conservation and the work being carried out by the scientific institute of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in maritime spatial planning
Teaching science in a fun and entertaining way and discovering the secrets of the sea, the richness of its biodiversity and the importance of its conservation to young people was the aim of the ECOAQUA Institute with the two workshops given by the Biodiversity and Conservation group (BIOCON) this month, within the framework of the Science and Innovation Weeks in the Canary Islands.
The workshops, integrated in a coordinated activity and in which 45 students from the last years of Spanish Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO) and Baccalaureate participated, were led by three ECOAQUA researchers under the titles ‘Sheldon J. Plankton discovers the world of marine food chains’, by Inma Herrera; and ‘A puzzle on the coast: Importance of Marine Spatial Planning for the conservation of the oceans’, directed by Candy Cecilia and Yaiza Fernández-Palacios.
Specifically, the activities proposed for the Science Weeks 2024 by the university institute were attended by 22 students from the 2nd Baccalaureate of the Arenas Atlántico School and 23 students from the 4th ESO and 1st Baccalaureate of the IES Arucas-Domingo Rivero, on the 7th and 12th of November, respectively.
The researcher Inma Herrera gave them a guided tour of the ECOAQUA facilities, explaining to the students in a participatory talk how the marine food chain works until it reaches the stomach of a fish, through the character of Sheldon J. Plankton, from the cartoon series SpongeBob SquarePants, in addition to discovering the main keys that citizens should take into account for the conservation and protection of our seas and oceans.
At the same time, Candy Cecilia and Yaiza Fernández-Palacios explained the basics of scientific work, how a line of research is organised and some of the main projects ECOAQUA has taken part in, such as Plasmar or Plasmar+, as well as projects in which it is currently involved, such as Marine SABRES or REMAP.
The workshop included a fun and participatory activity, related to the spatial planning of maritime space in the European Macaronesian regions, which brought science closer to the youngest, thanks to this initiative promoted by the Department of Universities, Science, Innovation and Culture of the Canary Islands Government, through the Canary Islands Agency for Research, Innovation and the Information Society (ACIISI).
The students had the opportunity to play ‘A puzzle on the coast’, a board game designed and produced as part of the educational and dissemination material of the Interreg MAC Plasmar+ project. By forming teams, and with the aim of getting to know our coastline and oceans better, the researchers were able to accompany the game by explaining, in an interactive way, how marine spatial planning is developed with an ecosystemic approach, i.e. seeking a balance between human activities linked to the blue economy and the conservation of the natural marine heritage, introducing them, at the same time, to several basic concepts of marine biology and coastal ecology.