Louth schools urged to take part in Marine institute project

Primary schools in County Louth are being invited to apply to compete in this year’s Marine Institute Explorers Healthy Oceans projects and will be in with a chance of winning a Marine Institute Explorers Ocean Champion Award this June.

The Health Oceans Project and Awards is part of the Marine Institute funded Explorers School Project, and the project modules will be delivered by Leave No Trace Ireland trainers around the country.

Padraic Creedon, Education Officer for Leave No Trace Ireland said he was delighted with the response of schools throughout the country to the Explorers Healthy Ocean project and there are still places for schools in Louth to apply to take part in the project and awards.

“This is a fantastic fun opportunity for schools in Louth to get involved in the Explorers Project which focuses on supporting the primary school curriculum and creating positive actions to raise awareness and engagement about the ocean in the schools and their local communities.

The schools working with our Leave No Trace trainers and the Explorers Outreach Centres will be learning about the ocean and how to take action to improve ocean health,” he said

The Explorers teams and schools will be working on the Healthy Ocean Projects over the next term where they will be able to select one of three categories to focus on.

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These include:

The first includes incorporating a marine theme into a Science, Technology, Engineering Arts and Maths (STEAM) project.

The second category includes developing an Ocean Literacy Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) creative project which addresses an SDG. This may be based on SDG topics such as climate change, wellness, as well as life under water.

The final category is providing teachers and students an opportunity to complete a project outdoors, ranging from creating outdoor sculptures to beach cleans.

Patricia Orme, Director of the Marine Institute said the Healthy Oceans Projects furthers the Marine Institute’s goals to increase marine education and engagement, and also encourages schools to engage with their local community.

“Through these projects we hope that the school children and their wider community will gain a greater appreciation of the importance of the ocean and an understanding of the significant impact of the ocean on our daily lives.”

This is the first year of the Ocean Champions Awards, and submissions based on the Healthy Oceans Projects will be judged by

Leave No Trace trainers.

The winners will receive a Marine Institute Explorers Ocean Champion Award for their school. Winners will be announced around World Ocean Day on the 8th of June.

There are some places still available for schools to take part and for more information see Explorers School Projects at the Explorers Education Programme www.explorers.ie

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