VIRTUE-s & the Ocean Literacy principles
Learning occurs best when students are actively involved within the construction of their own knowledge. VIRTUE-s project is an investigative learning activity that will stimulate the critical thinking of students while conducting research on several topics related to the ocean.
With VIRTUE-s project, educators and teachers can share many concepts that are included in the Ocean Literacy framework.
How teachers and educators can convey ocean-related concepts by implementing VIRTUE-s project?
Let's find out!
The VIRTUE-s project is based on a network of partners all over the world and all the schools and educational centers are united by one big ocean!
Teachers can introduce the properties of seawater, as well as explaining geographical and geological concepts about the location where students are deploying the VIRTUE discs. Youngsters can be asked to take measurement of physical and chemical properties (such as salinity, temperature, pH, nutrients content...) of seawater while deploying or retrieving the discs. Students can understand how these properties affect the distribution of species in the ocean.
Furthermore, starting from the observation of larvae found on VIRTUE-s discs, it is interesting to introduce the concept of ocean circulation, and the fact that moving ocean water can transport living things from one location to another. (To add a bit of fun you can use the memory card game about the larval and adult stages! You can find in the VIRTUE-s website, click here! (Links to an external site.)).
On VIRTUE discs, we find many organisms with a carbonatic shell or skeleton (such as mollusks and crustaceans): teachers and educators have the perfect ingredients to introduce the biomineralization processes.
Ocean life laid down vast volumes of siliceous and carbonate rocks.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere enters the ocean by diffusion and convective mixing. Carbon is present in the ocean as dissolved inorganic ions that can be used by many organisms to form calcium carbonate shells and other skeletal parts (in the form of Calcite or Aragonite). Some calcium carbonate from shells accumulates to form sedimentary rocks and uplift, the accretion process and sea-level changes through time may relocate sedimentary rocks onto lands. There, rocks can undergo weathering and erosion before eventually returning to the ocean.
Indeed, the process of marine biogenic calcification can be found on a VIRTUE disc, where calcifying organisms attach!
One of the main aim of VIRTUE-s project is discovering the amazing marine biodiversity!
While analyzing organisms, students can familiarize themselves with the taxonomy of the most common marine biofouling species. On VIRTUE-s website (Links to an external site.) you can find many cards explaining biology and ecology facts of the most common species that colonize VIRTUE discs.
Youngsters can develop a genuine curiosity towards marine organisms and they will be able to observe them under a stereoscope, which is times better than seeing them in a picture on the books.
Experimenting with biofouling in different environments, water depths or locations can help students discover how environmental factors affect species distribution in the sea.
For instance, they will learn that light plays a major role in species distribution patterns along the water column: which species prefer to live in well lit upper waters (upper part of the VIRTUE rack)? Which species prefer to colonize substrates in shadows (lower part of VIRTUE rack)?
The deployment locations can be selected according to the aim of the investigation!
In order to compare biofouling under different environmental conditions and to investigate how species thrive and develop adaptations to such conditions, discs can be deployed in location that:
- are more or less exposed to waves
- have eutrophic or oligotrophic waters
- present different salinity values
Furthermore, VIRTUE-s project encourages the exchange of pictures and observations within its network of partners that are located all around the world (we have now members in 24 countries!). In different locations, the discs are colonized by different species: collaborating with members from other geographic areas could be an opportunity to learn about the different biofouling communities that grow on the discs.
Life underwater is so diverse!
While recognizing species that have colonized VIRTUE discs, students can learn important ecological and biological features of marine organisms: feeding strategies, life cycles, reproductive strategies or adaptations.
VIRTUE-s project is not only about knowledge, but it is also about emotions! Youngsters can empathize with the ocean, discovering its importance in our daily life, while monitoring its biodiversity.
Ocean and humans are strictly related: ocean provides us with a lot of free services such as regulation of the climate, oxygen production, food and energy resources. And we shall thank the ocean behaving in a more sustainable way!
Bringing Ocean Literacy to the classroom will inspire youngsters to become ocean-enthusiast, and to take action on behalf of the ocean.
The investigative approach of VIRTUE-s is one of its strenght!
Fouling experiments such as those proposed by VIRTUE-s are actively used also in real scientific research.
Fouling experiments on PVC plates or discs have several applications:
monitoring studies, testing anti-fouling agents, doing research on invasive species or determining effects of changes in communities due to pollution or climate change.
Youngsters will be somehow working as "real scientists", and VIRTUE-s project can be a first approach to scientific investigation: they will learn how to settle experiments, conduct analysis on biodiversity and share results with their peers.
Now that you know more about Ocean Literacy and VIRTUE-s, are you ready to bring them to your classroom?