Project aims and objectives
Aims
This project aims to promote sustainable development and circular economy values through ocean literacy and stakeholder engagement.
Building upon existing knowledge and partnerships, this project will develop reusable education materials (e.g., Transitional Year cross-curricular module) and promote collaborative learning workshops among stakeholders. The project focus on three thematic areas:
climate change,
ocean pollution and
biodiversity loss
The outputs of Waves of Change will target marine science, data analysis, critical thinking, and cross-curriculum collaboration.
Three main target audience groups will be involved: educators, policymakers, and civil society.
Objectives
The main objectives of Waves of Change are to:
assess the current level of Ocean Literacy in Ireland among the target stakeholder groups;
build upon existing knowledge and efforts carried out by networks (e.g., Irish Ocean Literacy Network), to showcase best practice of where OL has been incorporated in sustainable and educational projects in Ireland;
develop freely available education materials and factsheets on Ocean Literacy that are focused on the Irish context and on promoting behavioural change;
ensure that the impact of focus groups and educational materials are carefully monitored and evaluated, including how these translate to public engagement
promote Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) based on Ocean Literacy
conduct a series of carbon footprint audits to assess consumption patterns and promote behaviour change, with a focus group.
A series of assessment tools will be developed to estimate the Ocean Literacy perception levels within Irish society and to stimulate and measure behaviour change through a succession of learning workshops, focus groups and carbon footprint audits.
These activities allow for stakeholders to understand the Ocean better, make better-informed decisions, and evaluate their consumption patterns with the aim of individual and community engagement towards a climate-neutral ocean economy.
The core team is experienced in stakeholder engagement, science communication and ocean literacy, allowing for the effective dissemination of results and local & national stakeholder engagement.
The innovative aspect of this project is the brainstorming workshops between educators, policymakers and selected members of the civil society, whose combined feedback will contribute to improving the teaching modules while promoting sustainable development values such as social equity, circular economy, and protection of the local environment.
The project also includes focus groups with a selected group of participants to conduct perception surveys and carbon footprint audits, with specific indicators to assess behaviour change. Large audience engagement techniques (e.g., video competition; art exhibition) are also included to promote sustainability values.
