Micro-Hunters
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 -