Photo: Thomas Kirk Sørensen
Contact: Thomas Kirk Sørensen
Out of sight, out of mind. This has often been the Achilles heel of the underwater nature in the Baltic Sea and has been a major contributor to the fact that the current state of nature in the Baltic is so poor. To change this situation, In 2017-2019, WWF Denmark carried out the project Discover the Sea 2.0 with funding from the Aage V. Jensen Nature Fund.
Discover the Sea 2.0 was designed to build youth awareness and knowledge of the ocean (“ocean literacy”) with the hope that future generations will take better care of it than we and our predecessors. Most of the efforts were focused on developing a teaching portal OpdagHavet.dk, which effectively fills a gap in teaching materials about marine biology for high schools.
The result is a “plug and play” programme for biology teachers and students. Materials range from a new marine ecology textbook to a podcast series and animated explainer videos that help high school students crack the code for difficult topics. WWF has also produced 360/virtual reality underwater films for educational purposes – a first in Denmark. Underwater biotopes can at last be experienced in the classroom, something that has in the past been a barrier. Numerous carefully selected themes and exercises help ensure that the programme is an obvious choice for high school teachers.
Photo: Thomas Kirk Sørensen
Photo: Thomas Kirk Sørensen
The well-known Opdag Havet (Discover the Sea) mobile app is also simplified for use in educational settings or as referenceto identify and learn more about species found in coastal areas. The material was created and tested by WWF’s biologists and educators in close collaboration with ambassadorial schools and the Øresund Aquarium. This cooperation has been crucial to the development process and the subsequent quality assurance. All materials are produced by WWF Denmark. The teaching portal has been launched and promoted to teachers across Denmark. For a look at the range of teaching materials, please visit www.opdaghavet.dk (in Danish).
The project also funded a large portion of WWF Denmark’s policy and advocacy activities and a pilot citizen science project in which volunteer divers monitored the condition of boulder reefs in the Baltic Sea.
This article is part of the WWF Baltic Newsletter – May 2020
