Marine Mammals is an EU-funded project to further increase young people’s interest in natural science and to prevent shortage of specialists in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Nine scientific and educational research institutes plus NGO’s from Germany, Poland, Sweden, Belgium and Denmark joined forces for the project “Marine Mammals” in September 2016.
One focus of this project is to provide learning materials for school teachers and students which is developed by an international team of experts consisting of marine scientists, educational researchers and teachers. The materials will introduce scientific topics from current research questions as well as different research methods to students.
Often seen as ambassadors for oceans and still threatened by anthropogenic impacts such as noise and plastic pollution present in the oceans, marine mammals were chosen as key animals for this project.
Developed materials will be introduced to teachers during teacher trainings and to secondary school students by participating in summer schools in each participating country. Thereby their interest, understanding and enthusiasm for STEM subjects and topics can be increased. By making available all materials on SCIENTIX, we are ensuring its free access to all. Furthermore, expedition boxes developed within the project can be borrowed for independent projects in schools. Those will include tools and instructions for hands-on activities. Other planned extracurricular activities such as digital posters and podcasts will be additionally developed to catch students’ curiosity for the natural sciences.
