Duddingston Primary, Portobello, Scotland - Kirsty Andrews

Connecting Scottish schools to the ocean

2 minute read

From Scotland's inner-cities to the Outer Hebrides, we're taking ocean education on the road.

Young people across Scotland have been taking part in our new marine-themed education experience. The Protecting Scotland’s Seas education roadshow is a great way for schools and youth groups to learn more about our ocean and covers important topics such as climate science, blue carbon and ocean acidification. Children also get the chance to get to know some of the marine creatures that live in Scottish seas.

Kirsty Crawford our Volunteer and Community Engagement Manager, has been visiting schools across the country, delivering hands-on workshops, school assemblies and immersive outdoor experiences.

Credit: Kirsty Crawford

By September 2022, the roadshow will have reached 6,000 children in 50 schools and youth groups across Scotland.

Participants of the roadshow will also have the chance to champion youth-led action in our citizen science programmes including the Great British Beach Clean and the Big Seaweed Search.

Scottish Education Roadshow, Hope Cottage Nursery, Edinburgh. Kirsty Andrews.jpg

Credit: Kirsty Crawford

In 2021 we focused on taking the roadshow to schools in inner-city locations who were lacking access to the coastline.

This year we'll travel to schools in rural and remote areas, such as the Highlands and Islands and Outer Hebrides.

By signing up to the roadshow, schools receive support to further their environmental learning skills and visit Scotland’s coast for outdoor ocean learning.

So far, we've seen that our practical experiments, trips to the beach and interactive workshops have been inspiring young people to think more about our Scottish seas and what we can do to protect them.
Kirsty Crawford, Volunteer and Community Engagement Manager for Scotland

Roadshow highlights

After their roadshow visit, Hope Cottage Nursery School in Edinburgh have been working hard on creating an Eco-Pledge for the school. They created this video which shows what can be done within individual schools to help combat the plastic and climate crises.

We’re delighted to report that they've made the switch to truly sustainable products, and have a zero plastic policy across the whole nursery school.

Over in Glasgow and Renfrewshire we have been bringing the ocean into primary schools with experiments to understand ocean acidification, marine life identification sessions and games to highlight the level of plastic pollution in Scotland.

Each school creates their Wave of Hope display to show the positive outcomes and practical solutions we can all take to protect our ocean.

Campbell Gerrard, Senior Policy Manager at Crown Estate Scotland said: “As an organisation with responsibility for managing much of Scotland’s coasts and seas, we are keen to support young people to experience, learn about and look after the marine environment, instilling values and learning that can be carried into later life. Building on COP26, there is no better time to be engaging with young people all across the country.”

Join in

In 2021 we managed to connect with over 1,100 children and young people across Scotland and we're currently looking for more schools who would like to take part in our ocean education experience from March 2022 onwards.

To get involved please register your interest by emailing Kirsty.crawford@mcsuk.org

More information on all our education resources can be found here

A big thank you to our funders, Crown Estate Scotland, The Britford Bridge Trust and Scottish Fishermen’s Trust who’ve helped make this project happen.