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: Enviro-teams from 5 Senica Secondary Schools (Slovakia), Lužice u Hodonína Secondary School (Czech Republic), OSV Ankaran (Slovenia), Osv Bohinjska Bistrica (Slovenia), with 2 more schools to join in
Project Summary:
Senica Blue Team is getting ready to run an international ProBlue
project of Micro-Hunters. Up to ten schools will join a Microplastic Hunt in
which they will investigate microplastics in surface waters in areas that are
of interest to the schools and local blue initiatives. This project will
leverage teaching materials, online training 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), Triglav National Park (Slovenia) and Škocjanski Zatok Natural
reserve (Slovenia), the students will become citizen scientists, sampling water
bodies, analysing samples and preparing community awareness campaigns.
The first and key objective of the project is to improve students´understanding
of water pollutants by direct data sampling, detecting and sharing. To make the
understanding even deeper and lasting the project plans to engage the students
in art activities (ENVIRO DESIGN and MICRO-GAMEBOOK competitions) and public
awareness campaigns (CLEAN BANKS) which would promote the importance of
freshwater ecosystems preservation. To secure sustainability of project objectives,
the project schools will meet their support team in Slovenia (BOHINJ MOBILITY),
where they will focus on strengthening cooperation, sharing good practices and
building 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 -