The Mediterranean, a semi-enclosed regional sea with more than twenty riparian states, has its specificities and characteristics from an environmental and societal point of view. It represents a challenging “playground” for all concerned, including actors within the fields of research or decision-making. In the light of this, it also seems necessary to develop strategies and collaborations to educate and outreach on “Mare nostrum” and the today’s challenges associated.
We believe that public outreach is one of our duties to society. We organize activities in order to popularize oceanography and the impact of climate change on marine ecosystem in the schools. The activities are mainly proposed to 10-12 year old children and they are organized in two meetings. These activities started in the framework of the European IP Project SESAME (Southern European Seas: Assessing and Modeling Ecosystem changes), but they continue today.
In 2007, The Island School launched the BESS Program targeting the next generation of Bahamian leadership who will be most important for the social, environmental, and economic stability of this island nation.
BESS students enroll in a year-long, high school post-graduate program that includes a semester at The Island School and a six-month internship at a conservation-related organization such as Bahamas Reef Environment Education Foundation, the Bahamas National Trust, or the Cape Eleuthera Institute. The internship gives students real-world work experience and helps them develop an understanding of the environmental and conservation issues that are of primary importance to The Bahamas.
Four COSEE Centers - Ocean Systems, West, Networked Ocean World, and California - held concept mapping collaborative workshops to help scientists mentor graduate students to improve their teaching and research. Formative and summative evaluation results indicate that the workshops promoted more peer to peer interactions between faculty and graduate students and more familiarity with Ocean Literacy and Climate Literacy principles.
The eleven Centers of Ocean Sciences Education Excellence engage in the professional development of educators using several "best practices" models. Central to these programs is the active participation of ocean scientists. This document provides a description of and recommendations for following COSEE effective practices in educator professional development as identified by research on teaching and learning and individual Center evaluation data. The professional development models for improving the communication of science concepts as tested by COSEE Centers are based on these effective practices.
