You will find the description of two outreach projects where I am involved in:
Mon Océan et Moi
In France, the curriculum accorded in schools to the study and understanding of the ocean does not measure up to the surface that oceans occupy on our planet; to their role in a context of climate development or their importance for mankind.
Scientists of the Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche (LOV)/Observatoire Océanologique de Villefranche (OOV) have taken the initiative to develop an educational project dedicated to the oceans and associated research. Thanks to their initial commitment and with the active support of the county council and the help of the school board of the Alpes-Maritimes, more scientists, in close collaboration with teachers of the secondary school Rolland-Garros and web designers, are now actively involved in the project « mon océan & moi ».
One of the objectives of this project is to favor collaboration between the scientific and educational worlds in order to elaborate a teaching method for raising consciousness of school children to the marine environment. The first step is to develop a "prototype" teaching programme which will be tested in some local secondary schools of the Alpes-Maritimes (France). It is then envisaged to widen of the « mon océan & moi » community.
For more information on "Mon Océan et Moi" and "adopt a float", check this website.
Adopt a float
The concept is based on the idea that a class could adopt a Biogeochemical-Argo profiling float and follow it during its scientific voyage. The trajectory of the float brings the students into any oceanic zone (e.g. the Mediterranean Sea, the North Atlantic or the Southern Ocean) and, in real-time, allows them to participate in the observations collected by this float as well as to the multidisciplinary science domains that are associated. To adopt and accompany a profiling float during its scientific voyage gives the students the opportunity:
- to better understand the marine environment and the scientific approach as well as
- to engage and share the acquired knowledge.
The “adopt a float” outreach initiative started in 2011 with three middle-school classes. Today, several hundred school children and their teachers from all primary and secondary school levels participate and groups of bachelor students also joined. With a long-term perspective, it intends to go beyond the lifetime of single scientific projects and thus has been designed to assemble and highlight specific experiences. “adopt a float” seeks to connect people and combines in its participatory approach an outreach in a (in-)formal and international context with training aspects on ocean science communication for early career scientists.