Abstract:

CIAGRO-UMH Open Day is an event held annually where high school and bachelor students are exposed to the various degrees and diplomas offered by Miguel Hernández University (UMH) in which several degrees and diplomas related to AgroFood Technology and Science are offered and many international, national and local projects are carried out. The event is held at Instituto de Investigación e Innovación Agroalimentaria y Agroambiental (UMH). Open Day is to attract students to the university. On the other hand, Food Quality and Safety Research Group (CSA) from CIAGRO-UMH participates in ThinkInAzul Marine Science programme with the commitment to integrate and strengthen marine research and to promote a network of centres of excellence to cooperatively address challenges in marine research, aquaculture, and blue economy initiatives. Therefore, a collaborative workshop titled “Think blue through aquaculture” to introduce the basic concepts of the marine world and food production was designed between CIAGRO-UMH and IEO-CSIC (Oceanographic Centre of Murcia (Experimental Marine Culture Plant in Mazarrón, Murcia). The aim of this paper was showing the specific activities carried out related to the ThinkInAzul project in CIAGRO-UMH Open Day. The workshop combined knowledge from marine biology, food quality, biology, and language.

The activity which takes 30 minutes was organised in 3 blocks of activities:
i) what aquaculture is and to show with a magnifying glass the eggs and larvae of Gilt-head sea bream,
ii) how aquaculture Gilt-head sea bream are fed at all stages, from live rotifers and Artemia salina to feed developed up to commercial size, and
iii) how to differentiate the type of production and species through labelling.

Consequently, the students developed a service-learning activity which can have a positive impact on the personal, social, cognitive, and academic development of adolescents. One of the most important contributions of this paper is to provide public material for future workshops.

Keywords:

Marine Science, Education, Food Technology.