Abstract:

A Blue School integrates water themes into its curriculum, using project-based learning to involve students in marine, maritime, and freshwater subjects. This fosters awareness and a sense of stewardship for the ocean. These schools are clustered under the Network of European Blue Schools (NEBS) umbrella.

In this context, ProBleu, a European-Commission--funded project, faces the challenge of expanding and supporting the NEBS while promoting citizen science to mobilise and engage children, youth, teachers, and school communities across the European Union and associated countries. The initiative to expand and support the NEBS aligns well with the objectives of the EU Mission “Restore ocean and waters before 2030” and broader environmental education goals. By enhancing ocean and water literacy among school communities, this initiative contributes to restoring the oceans and waters by 2030.

ProBleu offers several tools to teachers in primary and secondary schools, promotes Open Schooling methodologies and fosters interaction with scientists and experts in the field. This direct engagement enhances students' understanding of ocean- and water-related topics and strengthens their connection to the places where they live, particularly their local waters.

Key components of ProBleu include:
- Financial support for school projects: ProBleu publishes calls for grants of up to 10,000 euros per school to develop a school project related to the ocean or freshwater. The aim is to support schools financially in integrating ocean- and water-related topics into their curriculum across various subjects, such as science, geography, and even literature or art, fostering interdisciplinary learning.
With these grants ProBleu supports schools in developing and implementing innovative projects involving shared teaching and learning methods, such as citizen science, challenge-based learning, design thinking, system dynamics, science shops, and virtual ocean journeys, to improve understanding of oceans and waters.
- A catalogue of digital teaching aids to assess the state of ocean and freshwater resources and explore them: ProBleu is creating dynamic and interactive tools to examine the functioning of marine and freshwater systems. This catalogue will outline educational objectives and sample scenarios for analysis. This method is adaptable for teaching a spectrum of subjects, from fundamental principles to complex connections among climate, ecology, and human actions. It can be used within a specific project or integrated into broader narratives of environmental exploration.
- Support for schools to be accredited as a Blue School in the NEBS: ProBleu reviewed how schools establish Blue School projects, become certified in the NEBS, collaborate with other schools and organisations, and, finally, contribute to the achievement of the EU Mission “Restore ocean and waters before 2030” objectives. To help new schools reach accreditation in the NEBS ProBleu offers tailored support and resources as templates with a user-centered approach that schools can adapt.
- Support for citizen science projects: The ProBleu Consortium has expertise in marine and freshwater citizen science, a methodology to engage students in acting as scientists in the field and being in contact with their surroundings. So, ProBleu has developed templates and guidelines on how to create a marine or freshwater citizen science project in their school and offers virtual assessments to implement it.

Keywords:

Blue Schools, ocean literacy, freshwater literacy, citizen science, blue education, open schooling.