do as a career. But over 50% end upprogressing on to higher education,mostly reading marine biology with astrong zoology element. They also tendto develop a new found passion aboutcoastal and environmental issueswhich they keep with them, no matterwhat they do. So yes, you definitelycan interest young people in coastaland marine issues, although they haveto be intrigued in the first place.”So what attracts young people to dothese courses? “Our courses have ahigh practical and interactive natureto them, with a residential trip, fieldvisits and practicals playing a largepart”, says Birt. “In addition we alsooffer subsidised opportunities to take aPADI dive qualification which hasproved really popular. Students havebeen competely blown away afterseeing first-hand the dramatic changebetween a rocky shore at low tide andthe same area underwater at high tide.The messages really do sink in.”
Naomi Biggs,Thanet Coast Project
Naomi Biggs is Education Officer withthe Thanet Coast Project and her roleis to engage audiences who wouldn'tnormally get involved in coastalprojects. She is only too aware of theneed to engage young people.“Through working with excludedteenagers, I’ve seen the effects of what'giving up' on children does”, saysBiggs. “I have worked with childrenaround 13 years old who areconstantly excluded from lessonsthrough bad behaviour. Initially,taking them to the beach for a schoolvisit was a shock to their system, butonce I gained a little bit of trust, theyactually got very involved in thecoastal visits that I ran. I think thehands-on aspect of rockpooling wasperfect for them.”“It’s true we have struggled to getindividual teenagers involved in ourregular public events programmewhich include activities such asrockpooling, sand/environmental artand guided walks, although these arereally popular with the younger agegroups. Unless you work with existinggroups, it’s difficult to get teenagers tocome along. I naively once triedorganising a youth beach clean,publicising widely and expectingteenagers to turn up of their ownaccord, but the only young people tocome were part of an organised group– the Millennium Volunteers. Now, Ifind linking into existing youth groupsis the best way to go, putting moretime into the event rather thanpublicity in the hope that we’ll getpeople turning up.“A really successful project we ran inthis way, for example, was a hands-onart day where young people designedand made a Nature Trail. They thenhelped to run the trail as an event at alater date. I now also have a greatresource that I use on a regular basisand could never have made it look sogood myself!”
Lissa Goodwin, Marine biologist
Marine Biologist Lissa Goodwin hasworked with schools for a number of different organisations, including theBritish Divers Marine Life Rescue, theMarine Connection and theUniversity of Plymouth. “I havefound that 10-11 yrs (Year 6) arereally keen, absorb everything like asponge and take a lot of energy towork with” she says. “By 13-14 theyare harder work, but by 15-16+ thingsare turning around again and mostare good to work with. I’ve evenfound 16-17 year olds who havenever been rockpooling beforesuddenly engaged in the activity anddesperate to know more.”“The way you approach different agecategories has to be geared to theirlevel of knowledge, taking intoconsideration their background, ie dothey come from a coastal communitywhere the beach would be commonplace, or are they land-locked? Butdon’t always assume that if they comefrom the coast they will know about it.I am frequently amazed that parentsliving by the sea do not make moreuse of it and have found children inPlymouth and Penzance who havenever been rockpooling. You just haveto make some judgments on the dayabout the take home messages whichyou are going to try to get across.”
Jonathan Potts, The National Maritime Museum
A new marine education programmeabout to open its doors to scores of 11-16 year olds in January is being run bythe National Maritime Museum(NMM) with funding from The CrownEstate. The programme is unique inthat is has developed the first stand-alone, curriculum-led resourcesspecifically relating to marine andcoastal issues.“At the moment”, says Jonathan Pottsof the NMM, “the NationalCurriculum (in England and Wales)doesn’t have any distinct, marine andcoastal resources. You have to dragissues from other areas of thecurriculum. Our aim is to redress thisby providing schools with distinctmarine and coastal resources based onthe geography, science and citizenshipareas of the National Curriculum.”The programme has been piloted withteachers and is due for its first visitorsin January 2007. But why choose thisage group specifically? As Pottsexplains: “After engaging externalconsultants to look at the optimumage group for coastal and marineeducation, we agreed to focus on 11-16 years olds (key Stage 3 and 4). Theconcepts around marine and coastal
The edge
Autumn 2006
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Lissa Goodwin (far right) withstudents on a British Divers MarineLife Rescue training course.
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