Citizen Science in Promoting Chemical-Environmental Awareness of Students in the Context of Marine Pollution by (Micro)Plastics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15359/ree.27-1.15845Keywords:
Environmental awareness, Marine Litter, Microplastics, chemistry educationAbstract
Objective. To evaluate how the tasks carried out by the students in the scope of the PVC educational citizen science project for monitoring the quality of coastal waters contributed to raising their awareness of the problems of marine litter, in particular, the pollution of the ocean by plastics and microplastics, and the importance of chemistry in society. Methods. The project stage here presented consisted of six asynchronous tasks, conducted with digital mediation through the Moodle platform. The project took place in the 2018/2019 school year and involved 442 students and nine chemistry teachers from a middle school in the northern coastal region of Portugal. Data on the impact on students’ awareness of the contexts considered were collected from the outputs the students produced in each task. The data were analyzed using the content analysis technique. Discussion. From this analysis emerged indicators of the PVC project’s positive contribution to raising students’ awareness of the pollution of marine environments by (micro)plastics, as well as raising awareness of the role of chemistry in society. The students expressed positive opinions toward this science and recognized its links with other areas of science and technology. Conclusion. Thus, it was found that citizen science projects significantly promote students’ awareness of chemical-environmental subjects by exploring current and relevant contexts.
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