The problem of climate change and how it should be addressed is of critical importance, and engaging young people in understanding the fragile balance of the Earth's systems is paramount. The relationship between Ocean and Climate is complex and fascinating, but also challenging. Recent research indicates that climate change is having a direct impact on the Ocean, and Ocean warming is responsible for direct experience of changing weather patterns. The concept of Ocean Literacy as an aspect of Scientific Literacy has been defined by ocean scientists and educators through seven key principles: The Earth has one big Ocean with many features; the Ocean and its' life shape many of Earth's features; the Ocean is a major influence on weather and climate; the Ocean made the Earth habitable; the Ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems; the Ocean and humans are inextricably connected, and the Ocean is largely unexplored (Ocean Literacy Network, 2015). Developing Young People's Ocean Literacy is challenging, in part because the Ocean is large, complex, unexplored and difficult to experience directly. This means that young people can find it relatively abstract and less immediately accessible when learning about, for example, adaptation, ecosystems and climate, in comparison with land-based examples. Issues of scale contribute to the challenge of helping students understand the relatively unexplored nature of the Ocean, but given that the Ocean covers 71% of the Earth's surface and is such a major influence on climate, it is imperative that educators and scientists find ways to engage pupils in Ocean Literacy. This is a therefore a key subject for engaging young people in science issues and enabling them to become scientifically literate citizens who can actively engage in activity and decision-making at a local and national level in order to have a global impact. OCEANS brings two research-intensive universities, the Fundación Gallega Centro Tecnológico de Supercomputación de Galicia, three Aquaria and five schools/colleges in the UK, Denmark and Spain together to innovate and extend best practice in the teaching of Ocean Literacy though student-centred, problem-based learning via innovative material, dialogic and creative approaches to using AR/VR technologies. The project will begin with a thorough examination of existing practice and its context in each member state and internationally, published in the form of a State-of-the-Art Review. We will build on this, designing a series of six pilot projects, to be delivered by OCEANS regional school-aquaria partnerships, setting out the learning objectives, the knowledge and skills to be acquired, the characteristics of the proposed creative learning activities and AR/VR tools to be used in each pilot. We will evaluate each pilot, by creating communities of research - university researchers, teachers and students - to both implement and understand these learning experiences using “design-based research methodology” (Wang & Hannafin, 2005) and a range of quantitative and qualitative methods, including interviews, assessments, student-logs, observation, focus groups and photographs/video records of material engagement. We will synthesise our results, identifying common success factors and lessons, and will draw our conclusions from these together into a structured OCEANS Toolkit, that others can follow in order to replicate or build on our own experience. As an immediate result of the pilot projects, we expect to: • Raise young peoples’ understanding of role they can play in addressing the fragility of the Ocean and related ecosystems and climate; • Provide young people with the skills they need to address these problems; • Help young people to acquire the questioning, team-working and communication skills needed for careers in STEM; • Raise young peoples’ interest and participation in subjects related to STEM at higher levels, by substantive engagement with Ocean Literacy and through working with novel digital tools in themselves. • Increase students’ critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and caring. • Improve teachers’ and informal eduators' skills, confidence and ability to teach using AR/VR technologies through creative pedagogies. • Generate new knowledge and capacity to use AR/VR tools and interdisciplinary creative approaches to support STEM Education. • Enhance teachers’ ability to design and deliver projects focused on active student-centred and creative learning. Through Stakeholder engagement and partners responsibilities for teacher training and creating research impact, we expect the project results to: be mainstreamed into partner schools ongoing practice; to inform the content of initial and in-service teacher training delivered by our institutions and more broadly; to be shared with others schools in each participating region; and to inform regional and national policies on the teaching and learning of Science.
The Ocean Connections project took place against a background of increasing urgency with respect to issues of climate change and completes as the COP 26 Climate Change Conference is due to take place. Young people are increasingly aware of, and concerned about climate change and other issues of environmental sustainability, yet developing their understanding of the fragile balance of the Earth’s systems remains an ongoing challenge. The project drew on expertise from a range of partners in the UK, Denmark and Spain. HEI institutions led the project activity in each country, with overall coordination by the University of Exeter, UK, who also brought expertise in creativity and environmental educational research. VIA College, Denmark brought expertise in educational research into AR and VR. CESGA’s expertise was in the design and development of digital learning tools for education. In each country, the expertise of teachers and aquarium educators in partner schools and aquaria ensured that materials developed in partnership and tested in schools were appropriate and useable by teachers and informal educators. The objectives of the project were to: • Understand the position of Ocean Literacy, creativity pedagogies and digital technology in the formal and informal curriculum in the partner countries; • Summarise the international research literacy with respect to teaching for Ocean Literacy, creative pedagogies and education using AR/VR digital technologies; • Synthesise this state of the art knowledge to develop a set of educative principles to guide teaching for Ocean Literacy using creative, digital pedagogies • Design projects for pupils to learn about Ocean Literacy, drawing on these educative principles • Evaluate these projects to understand their impact on pupils’ knowledge and attitudes and the way in which the educative principles were enacted • Draw on the educative principles and the project outcomes to develop a toolkit for teachers to use creative and digital pedagogies together to enable young people’s Ocean learning . Materials developed were piloted in schools: three pilot projects with pupils aged 9-11, and three with pupils aged 11-14. Overall, 4 aquarium educators (1 UK, 1 Denmark, 2 Spain), 10 teachers (4UK, 3 Denmark, and 3 Spain), and 235 pupils participated directly in the pilot projects (135 pupils aged 9-11; of whom 120 were from the UK and 15 from Denmark, and 117 age 11-14, of whom 101 were from Spain and 16 from Denmark). A State of the Art Review was produced, including an analysis of curricula for pupils aged 7-11 and 11-14 in each partner country related to Ocean Literacy to search for points of commonality and difference in national approaches, an exploration of where and how creative pedagogies and AR/VR digital technologies were used in practice in the partner countries, and an international literature review of research into the three project ‘strands. A unique VR tool was created for use by teachers and pupils. Using 360 images and video from aquaria and the Ocean, using this tool pupils are able to interact with, communicate, and create learning materials for themselves with respect to the Ocean. The Ocean Connections Educative Principles and the new VR tool were used by project partners in each country to design and implement six ‘pilot projects’, three for pupils aged 7-11 (Ocean Adaptations, Plastic Pollution, and Nursing Grounds for Fish) and three for pupils aged 11-14 (Biodiversity, Shoal of Fish and Accessing the Ocean). Each project was evaluated using a mixed methods, case study approach, to produce a case study report on each pilot and an overall synthesis of the findings with respect to key research questions regarding the impact on pupils’ knowledge of and attitudes towards the ocean, pupils’ and educators’ perspectives about the innovative creative and digital approaches, and the way in which the educative principles manifested in the pilot projects. Alongside these, an innovative ‘diffractive analysis’ of the data was undertaken, drawing on arts-based methods and new materialist theory to develop new insights and questions into the nature of learning in these projects. Findings show that many pupils found the use of VR with creative pedagogies engaging and impactful, but that there were some barriers in using the tool due to lack of sufficient bandwidth and, in some schools, lack of experience. Care, responsibility and activism emerged as important themes, with some key areas of connection between creative and digital pedagogies that could be usefully built upon in the design of learning experiences. The educative principles, VR tool, and pilot projects were used to create a toolkit for teachers which can be found on the Ocean Connections website. The project was disseminated via seven stakeholder and dissemination events, newspaper articles, social media, and conference presentations.