Teaching material developed within the project “The Universal Sea”!

During the environment week of a local waste disposal facility of Rostock (Germany), we were able to try out our newly developed teaching material. We taught several different groups of pupils about marine litter and about the dangers it entails.

Like every year two school classes per day were invited for one week to get informed about sustainability, recycling and waste reduction. The pupils visited the company’s area and learned about the way the facilities function. This year the NGOs NABU Mittleres Mecklenburg e.V. and EUCC-D – The Coastal Union Germany as well as the Leibniz-Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde took over the responsibility to create the theoretical part of the event by educating the students about litter and the Baltic Sea.

Different experts gave information about the characteristic features of the Baltic Sea for example through an experiment dealing with the saltwater influence. Furthermore, they presented different sources and example findings of marine litter. Here the education material developed within the project The Universal Sea was used illustrating the sources and different kinds of litter. Moreover, ways to avoid waste were presented and students had the possibility to find out how much microplastic is contained in different cosmetic products.

In total, the event reached 119 students during the week and we were able to tell them in details about a sustainable life, plastic and waste in the ocean. It was a great experience! The educational material developed will be used in the future again to support the ideas of The Universal Sea.