The Minister of Sea, Ricardo Serrão Santos, issued the new Blue School challenge for the school year 2020/21!
“Our Ocean in 2030” is directed at Blue Schools and students of all ages, engaging them in the UN Ocean Decade. There were two ways to participate:
🗣️ Debates – Commitments for Our Ocean in 2030
Each school promotes debates among the students to identify the 10 commitments of the school for a better Ocean in 2030. The school submits its list and their students take part in regional and national debates to select the 10 Blue School commitments for the Decade.
🗓️ Deadline: 31 march 2021
✍ Ilustrations – How Do I Want the Ocean in 2030?
How do we want the Ocean to be in 2030? Students create an image (drawing, painting, digital, etc.) that answers this question, along with a sentence or slogan.
🗓️ Deadline: 31 march 2021
In the following stage, three regional debates took place to select the 10 commitments of each region. Each Blue School selected their students to take part in these debates, that were live streamed on YouTube:
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Afterwards, in 26 May, we had the National Debate to discuss the 10 Blue School commitments for "Our Ocean in 2030", live on our YouTube channel. The journalist Catarina Canelas was the moderator of a debate that included 10 Blue School students from all over the country. The Minister of Sea, Ricardo Serrão Santos, made the opening statement.
These are the 10 Blue School commitments for Our Ocean in 2030.
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Blue School Day is celebrated on May 19 and, to mark the occasion in 2021, we asked our students to write and send letters in the name of the Ocean. The goal is to raise awareness among companies and brands, motivating them to become more responsible and engaged on the Ocean sustainability!
On Blue School Day, all Blue Schools wrote and sent letters to a company of their choice that supplies juice or individual packages of milk with disposable plastic straws.
Blue Schools were encouraged to look for creative solutions and present alternatives to replace the use of disposable plastic straws. Companies were challenged to form partnerships with the schools, because only working together can we foster significant changes.
The letters were sent on May 19, creating a national movement on Blue School day. Envelopes were identified with the “In the Name of the Ocean” sticker. On May 19, we also asked students and teachers to share photos of the action on social media, using the hashtags #DiaEscolaAzul #EmNomedoOceano #EscolaAzul #OceanDecade.
Overall, more than 1500 letters were sent, and more than 6000 students were involved in the initiative.
Take a look at some images from the initiaitive on Facebook.
Take a look at some images from the initiaitive on Instagram.
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Training Courses "Ocean Literacy for All"
Escola Azul - Blue School has launched in the 2020/21 school year two Ocean Literacy training courses for teachers. With the participation of different partners of the Blue School network, these training courses will focus on Ocean Literacy from different approaches and perspectives, in a holistic and applied methodology that truly reflects an “Ocean Literacy for All”, based on the UNESCO multiperspective approach. Both courses are accredited for teachers.
Know all the information on the training course “Ocean Literacy for All 1” (PT)
Know all the information on the training course “Ocean Literacy for All 2” (PT).
The “Ocean Literacy for All” Training Courses came to an end during the month of July 2021, when the participating teachers shared how they managed to put into practice the contents learned during the course.
The “Ocean Literacy for All” Training Courses received very positive feedback from the participants. Blue School thanks all the teachers who participated and, in particular, the partners who contributed with different perspectives and approaches to the quality and multidisciplinarity of the course: Help Images; EMEPC; Docapesca; MARE; ANP/WWF; Univ. Valores; Oceanário de Lisboa; Nazaré On_da Wave; Aporvela; OMA – Observatório do Mar dos Açores; SPEA - Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo das Aves; Ciência Viva e DGPM - Direção-Geral de Política do Mar.