Micro-Hunters
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.
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: 6 primary and junior secondary schools in Senica (Slovakia), Lužice u Hodonína Primary and Junior Secondary School (Czech Republic), Ostrava-Krásné Pole Primary and Junior Secondary School (Czech Republic), OŠV Ankaran (Slovenia) and OŠV Bohinjska Bistrica (Slovenia)
Documents for download:
Slovak language
Project Summary:
Our Blue Team decided to join the internationalProBlue innitiative of Micro-Hunters. Blue Teams from 10 partner schools inSenica (Slovakia), Lužice u Hodonína (Czech Republic), Ostrava-Krásné Pole(Czech Republic), Ankaran (Slovenia) and Bohinjska Bistrica (Slovenia) takepart in a "Microplastic Hunt" in which they investigate microplastics insurface waters in areas that are of interest to the schools and local blueinitiatives. The project will employs teaching materials, online training andscientific protocols freely developed and delivered by Deakin University, theUniversity of California Berkeley, Labter-CREA Mantova and GLOBE Italy. Bybeing the first to measure the presence of microplastics in the area of ZáhorieNatural Reserve (Slovakia), Poodří Natural Reserve (Czech Republic), užický luhNatural Reserve (Czech Republic), Triglav National Park (Slovenia) and Škocjanski Zatok Natural reserve (Slovenia), the students become citizenscientists, sampling water bodies, analysing samples and preparing communityawareness campaigns. The first and key objective of the project is toimprove students´ understanding of water pollutants by direct data sampling,detecting and sharing. To make the understanding even deeper and lasting theproject plans to engage the students in art activities (6-Knot Challenge, ENVIRODESIGN and MICRO-GAMEBOOK competitions) and public awareness campaigns (CLEANBANKS) which would promote the importance of freshwater ecosystemspreservation. To secure sustainability of project objectives, the projectschools will meet their support team in Slovenia (Micro-Hunters Summer Camp),where they will focus on strengthening cooperation, sharing good practices andbuilding long term partnerships.
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 -