Since 1997, VIRTUE has been mostly a national marine school project in Sweden. Using the VIRTUE project as a basis, the proposed project (VIRTUE-s) will introduce several aspects for its expansion and improvement: first and foremost are close partnerships with other European countries, the addition of more advanced digital tools, improved database multilingualism and implementation of innovative pedagogic approaches. The proposed VIRTUE-s project focuses on developing innovative, digital and practical tools to increase the quality of teaching natural sciences using ocean-based examples. This project answers the call for innovative learning designs, which are required due to changes in the teaching profession as schools and societies have become more digitalized. VIRTUE-s has eight partners (five scientific partners and three school partners) from Sweden, Germany, Spain and USA. The scientific partners (UGOT, GEOMAR, SUBMON, HV, UMCES/MDSGC) have been chosen because of their interest and knowledge in the field of marine biology and media literacy. The three school partners (ÖGY, HEBB and FEG) were chosen as they have had several years of collaboration with their respective scientific partners. The VIRTUE-s methodology uses simple and inexpensive discs for fouling experiments in the sea, very close to actual scientific methods. The project will provide a platform for expanding classroom pedagogy, including project-based science, with integrated fieldwork where pupils can drive research inquiries and questions by designing experiments to study marine biodiversity. This will make them more engaged in their work, on a much more personal level than in text-book work. In this project, pupils will also participate in European collaborative media literacy learning experiences, which will give them opportunities to discuss global environmental issues and to understand similarities and differences in biodiversity in the ocean surrounding Europe. In addition, VIRTUE-s will create innovative teaching packages with digital elements, an interactive biodiversity calculator, a training workshop on media literacy, a handbook on “how to produce collaborative media productions” and teacher training courses, including a Massive Open Online Course on biofouling and Ocean Literacy. The already existing database, VIRTUEDATA, will be updated, improved and made accessible in five languages (English, Swedish, Catalan, Spanish and German). In addition, a 5-day summer school will be organized for representatives of the pupils from the partner schools. The VIRTUE-s impact will lead to teachers being better equipped and more confident in using ICT tools. They will achieve a higher digital competence and can introduce innovative ocean-related elements and tools in the classroom. The teachers will also be able to link their teaching to the United Nations sustainable development goals and to connect their pupils with EU goals (e.g. equip/educate pupils to prepare for future job markets within the Blue Growth sector). Pupils will be engaged by the hands-on and novel ICT elements of VIRTUE-s. They will work in teams, which will develop their social competences and make them aware of their own as well as their team-mates’ importance in making a project work. They will benefit from connecting across borders to discuss topics that we all have in common, (such as biodiversity, climate change, ocean pollution, future/survival of the oceans and its sustainability). This will make pupils aware that to achieve a sustainable future ocean we need to work together.
The VIRTUE-s project focused on developing digital and practical tools to increase the quality of teaching natural sciences using ocean-based examples. The partnership consisted of 6 teachers (school partners) and 8 researchers from Sweden, Germany, Spain and USA. The target groups were teachers and pupils, especially our school partners and their senior high school pupils because they contributed first-hand experience and feedback with our developed methods and tools. The pupils were studying either biology, natural science, language, social science or followed the maritime vocational programme (seafarer). A media literacy workshop was implemented for project partners. The acquired media literacy knowledge helped school partners train their pupils in how to produce videos on a scientific subjects, which was an essential part of intellectual output (IO4). Within IO4, pupils performed fouling experiments – studying biodiversity and growth of marine organisms using scientific methods – on discs that had been placed in the ocean and analysed the results using outputs from the project (e.g. ID plates, biodiversity calculator tool). The pupils shared their results on biofilm and biodiversity in presentations, videos and via direct exchange (intercomparison of data from different regions) through 64 video conferences, using English as a common language. This experience not only increased media and ocean literacy (SDG14) in pupils and teachers but also stimulated a team-based collaborative approach (SDG4), language skills, geographical comprehension, global and local environmental awareness and increased social competence. The pupils now understand that even if we are far apart we can still work together in a project and learn a lot from each other. Pupils for the first time wrote reports presenting own analysed data. This taught pupils documentation, as it gives them a chance to reflect on and be critical about their findings. Pupils reported that they learned how to express themselves in a foreign language, how to digitally work and communicate with others – from different countries – and present results (SDG4) via the internet. Pupils have become more acquainted with scientific concepts and technical terms and have been taught using marine examples instead of only terrestrial. Biofouling was a new concept in some schools and also the use of species counting in combination with statistics. All these acquired skills will be of major benefit in the pupil’s future careers (EU goal). The partnership developed a number of outputs, such as teaching resources (IO1) (e.g. tutorials for quantitative analysis methods, species identification plates); further development courses (IO2) for 136 in-service teachers in Sweden, Germany, Spain and USA, where the impact was learning how to use marine examples and project-based learning in their classrooms; the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC, IO3) “Promoting ocean literacy and project-based learning by monitoring biodiversity” attracted 365 teachers and educators from 27 countries, where the impact was learning how to use marine examples and project-based learning in their classrooms; the biodiversity calculator (IO5) was constructed to make direct links between mathematics content and ecological content. The impact developed pupil’s ability to practice (interactively on the web) how numbers associated with biodiversity can shift the values of measures of biodiversity. The project website (virtue-s.eu, IO6) is available in Swedish, German, English, Spanish, Catalan and contains all downloadable (e.g. a handbook "Making a video on a scientific subject") and interactive resources. Due to all languages, the project website now has a wider global reach. Due to the pandemic a face-to-face summer school for pupils of the partner schools was converted into a virtual activity named OCEAN, an “Online Classroom for Education And Networking”, focusing on international collaborations on marine biology topics. The programme ran for 6 weeks (once weekly) and 75 pupils participated . 260 pupils from our partner schools took part in IO4 and OCEAN. The project impacted cross-curricular (English, Biology and Arts) teacher collaborations. This is beginning to have an impact on the curriculum at these schools, where schools shifting toward (or increasing) the use of project-based learning as a method for teaching science content. Due to the project, teachers felt better equipped and more confident using ICT tools and to converse in English. Other EU projects have identified gaps, such as lack of teacher training and ocean-based resources, and these gaps have been filled by our project. Our project was innovative in demonstrating a clear model for project-based learning internationally and demonstrated how changes in pedagogical approaches to science enhanced the engagement of teachers and pupils in collaborative education efforts.