“Percorsi nel BLU”/“Blue Paths” is a project –
carried out by a Science teacher of a Unified School District in La
Spezia - aimed for teaching scientific methods trough interactive
learning and operational research on marine habitats.
SEACleaner, instead, is a project carried out by a National
Research Centre – Institute of Marine Sciences ISMAR-CNR–
aimed for monitoring the impact of marine debris and for raising
awareness on the importance of appropriate management
strategies for solving this problem; this project involves higher
secondary school students trough “work-related learning”
internships. “Percorsi nel BLU”/“Blue Paths” and SEACleaner
are actually cooperating and sharing some goals, methodologies
and sampling sites of the coastal Tuscan and Ligurian Protected
Areas. The cooperation is giving interesting and important
educational outcomes and scientific results such as: updated
checklists of benthic communities, high frequency of surveys that
can allow to identify significant seasonal patterns (especially for
beach litter accumulation rates) but also synergy among very
different partners (marine parks, researchers, local authorities,
citizens, environmental education centres, teachers and students)
that represents an effective push-pull impulse for maintaining a
long lasting engagement of citizens in scientific research.PublishedGenova, Italy3A. Ambiente Marinoreserve