The Life Muscles Team is well aware that school plays a fundamental role in the formation of conscience and in creating awareness in children and teenagers. For this reason, the project includes activities to involve teachers, with whom to build and share educational paths and support activities for learning about environmental issues, in this case specific to the marine environment dedicated to 1st and 2nd grade schools in Liguria and Puglia, the two pilot areas of the project.
A specific educational program will be created aimed at involving male and female students in activities aimed at protecting the sea from pollution, trying to strengthen the link with their territory. To do this a digital Edukit will be made which will include educational materials dedicated to plastic pollution and a handbook for teachers with examples of themed educational activities that they can carry out in their classrooms. Furthermore, to encourage the participation of schools, a merit contest for which the classes that will participate will be invited to prepare a work in different forms (text, photos, film, etc.) following for each foreseen edition a related topic of marine pollution. The best three works of each edition will be rewarded with dedicated gadgets.
In the end, schools and classes interested in collaborating will also be able to participate in field activities through two important campaigns promoted by the project in the pilot areas of Liguria and Puglia:
- The tracking campaign Beach litter organized every year from the month of April. It is an activity of citizen science which consists in the collection of data on the waste present on the beach. Monitoring allows you to acquire information on the quantities, trends and sources of that share of marine litter immediately visible to all of us, in this case with a focus on mussel farming socks. The protocol used is a simplification of that provided by the Guidelines of the MSFD technical group (Guidance on monitoring of Marine Litter in European seas, MSFD technical subgroup on ML).
- Countryside Clean Up the Sea, on the occasion of World Oceans Day promoted by the United Nations (June 8) with the aim of actively involving the local population, raising awareness of the problem of plastic pollution and increasing social consensus towards environmental policies.
