Micro-Hunters 2025
This years' Micro-hunters ProBleu project is nearly over, but our international teams have already completed their quests in their hunt for knowledge. After half a year of preoaration and honework they met in the hearr of Slovenian Alps and within three days (28-30 August 2025) they managed to repeat together what they had been practicing at home:
Explore the Vicinity of an Alpine lake in Slovenia
Join Efforts in mixed groups from Czech republic, Slovakia and Slovenia
Clean the Banks (difficult task, since the vicinity of the alpine lake is reasonably clean)
Take Samples of water from several bodies of fresh water
Find microplastics (unfortunately all samples showed presence of these tiny polutants)
Share Data with our support team from Italy and Australia via Zoom Call (the toughest part for the young scientists was to remain patient in the computer lab while uploading the collected data, but thanks to the kind help of our tutors we made a big step towards propper data sharing
Take Hard Measure to reduce microplastics pollution by:
- applying natural jute rope to organize knot-tying competition,
- use our T-shirts a bit longer before putting them into washing machine
- collect plastic rubbish and use reusable bottles for drinking water whenever possible.
This way we hope to have Saved the (symbolic) Newt George and
preserve his natural wetland habitat in just a tiny bit better
condition after we left the grounds of Bohinj Taborniki Camp Site.
Our ten teams still work on. They are:
- taking special comparison samples to build up ready-to-use portfolios of well identifiable microplastic fibres,
- keeping in touch and helping each other to upload the data correctly,
- sharing photos
- and making plans for future science meetings.
For now, though, the most adventurous part of MicroHunters is over and our Slovenian mobility (and all the other actions we undertook this year) will be well rememberd and missed.
You can find more photos HERE:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YOoyE8IGP0V9P1-dfX29uFhaXWLCwoY5?usp=sharing
About the project
Name of the project: Enabling schools to unite their forces and become "Microplastics Hunters", with the Microplastics Monitoring Protocol Trial
Acronym: Micro-Hunters
Main Field: Freshwater
Project duration: 10 months
(starting in February 2025)
Participating schools:
ZŠ V. Paulínyho-Tótha 32, Senica
https://zs1senica.edupage.org/contact/
ZŠ Komenského 959, Senica
https://dvojkasenica.edupage.org/contact/
ZŠ Sadová 620, Senica
https://zs3senica.edupage.org/contact/
ZŠ s MŠ J. Mudrocha 1343/19, Senica
https://zsmudrochova.edupage.org/contact/
SZŠ Brezová 1, Senica
https://spojenaskolase.edupage.org/contact/
ZUŠ Vajanského 27/4, Senica
https://www.zus-senica.sk/index.php/kontakt
OŠV Regentova 4, Ankaran, Slovinsko
https://osv-ankaran.si/sola
OŠV Dr. Janeza Mencingerja Bohinjska Bistrica, Slovinsko
https://www.osbohinj.si/
ZŠ a MŠ Ostrava-Krásné Pole, Česká republika
https://www.zskrasnepole.cz/kontakty
ZŠ a MŠ Jaroslava Dobrovolského, Lužice, Česká republika
https://zs-luzice.edupage.org/contact/
Project Summary:
Our Blue Team decided to join the international ProBlue initiative of Micro-Hunters. Blue Teams from ten partner schools in Senica (Slovakia), Lužice u Hodonína (Czech Republic), Ostrava-Krásné Pole(Czech Republic), Ankaran (Slovenia) and Bohinjska Bistrica (Slovenia) took part in a "Microplastic Hunt" in which they investigated microplastics in surface waters in areas that are of interest to the schools and local blue initiatives. The project emploed teaching materials, online trainings and scientific protocols freely developed and delivered by Deakin University, the University of California Berkeley, Labter-CREA Mantova and GLOBE Italy. By being the first to measure the presence of microplastics in the area of Záhorie Natural Reserve (Slovakia), Poodří Natural Reserve (Czech Republic), Lužický luh Natural Reserve (Czech Republic), Triglav National Park (Slovenia) and Škocjanski Zatok Natural Reserve (Slovenia), the students became citizen scientists, sampling water bodies, analysing samples and preparing community awareness campaigns. The first and key objective of the project was to improve students´ understanding of water pollutants by direct data sampling, detecting and sharing. To make the understanding even deeper and lasting, the project engaged the students in art activities such as:
Six-Knot Challenge
https://weareatthesameboat.webnode.sk/six-knot-challenge/
"Clean Banks 2025" Envirodesign Art Competition
https://weareatthesameboat.webnode.sk/envirodesign-2025/
"Clean Banks" Senica Thing 2025 Micro-Gamebook Challenge
https://weareatthesameboat.webnode.sk/micro-game/
and Clean Banks 2025 Public Awareness campaign
... which promoted the importance of freshwater ecosystems preservation. To secure sustainability of project objectives, the project schools organized Micro-Hunters 2025 Summer Camp -an international citizen science mobility,where they focus on strengthening cooperation, sharing good practices and building long-term partnerships.
Micro-Hunters in media
On Friday, March 21, an introductory training session for young science teams involved in the Micro-Hunters project took place at the No.1 Senica Primary and Junior Secondary School. This is a citizen science project investigating microplastics in surface waters designed for elementary schools and funded by European Union through European Blue Schools Network. The project scientific support team includes Deakin University (Australia), the LabterCrea Mantova Institute (ITA) and the University of California Berkeley (USA). Students from 5 other Senica schools and partner schools from the Czech Republic and Slovenia will throughout the year participate in regular sampling, laboratory research and data sharing with experts from partner universities using the Hydrosphere (Globe Observer) protocol. The project funds will, among other things, cover the purchase of filtration laboratory sets for detecting microplastics and their distribution among active school teams. The aim of the Micro-Hunters project is to raise the level of Ocean Literacy at schools, build-up awareness about pollution in our rivers and seas and foster good practices in understaning the microplastics.
- Ondrej Odokienko -