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WaterWorldAdventure – Interactive eBook to improve the Ocean Literacy of Kids
Start date: Oct 1, 2016, End date: Sep 30, 2018 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Ocean literacy is seen as a prerequisite for Europe’s quest for a more marine-oriented economy and society, embodied in the long-term strategy known as Blue Growth.The development of the new maritime economy can have important socioeconomic consequences in coastal areas and in the marine space. These developments, together with the pressures from human activities and climate change on the marine environment, make it crucial to engage with citizens and stakeholders about seas and ocean challenges.We will not achieve a sustainable exploitation of marine resources and a good environmental status of our seas and oceans unless citizens understand the influence of seas and oceans on their lives and how their behaviour can have an impact on marine ecosystems.However, the Ocean Literacy level in Europe is low, as it is widely recognised by the DG Maritime Affairs and the European Marine Science Educators Association. Moreover, little has been done to change this scenario. With few exceptions, Ocean Literacy topics are not present in European schools’ curricula.One of the few serious efforts in Europe to introduce Ocean Literacy in schools has been done in Portugal (European Marine Science Educators Association, 2013), which, in the last years tried to place Ocean Literacy on the map for its science teachers and launched a version of the Ocean Literacy principles adapted to the science curriculum.In this context, project WaterWorldAdventure was designed to be a pioneer initiative, capable of contributing to close the Ocean Literacy gap and inspire other similar enterprises.The project aims to create, and make available online to educators and parents, an educational Interactive eBook – The WaterWorldAdventure eBook - to improve the Ocean Literacy of pre-school children.The WaterWorldAdventure eBook will feature an engaging story that addresses specific contents related to the Ocean and adequate for the targeted age group. It will specifically address the 7 Essential Principles and the Fundamental Concepts of the Ocean Literacy Framework, developed by the National Marine Educators Association in the US, and that is the world reference in this area.Additionally, the project will deliver a Facilitator’s Guide - The WaterWorldAdventure Facilitator’s Guide – that contains:• individual and group exercises and activities to complement the learning experience provided by The WaterWorldAdventure eBook• guidelines to help teachers and parents making a better use of these learning resourcesBy acting next to pre-school children, the project expects to achieve a wider long-term impact in the relation between European Citizens and the ocean. On the other hand, by using an interactive ebook, the project wishes to tackle the general lack of resources to implement educational programmes on Ocean Literacy by providing learning contents in a format which is engaging for learners, easy to use by teachers and parents and easy to scale to all of Europe.This initiative gathers the vast expertise of 6 partners from 4 different European countries, including an University, a Regional Education Authority, a Non-profit organization and 2 private companies active in education:P1 - University of Thessaly (Greece): University covering a wide range of scientific and knowledge areas, with 18 Departments and various Research Centres, including a Department of Early Childhood Education.P2 – Advancis Business Services (Portugal): private enterprise devoted to Education and People development, with a long experience in the development of innovative learning resources and training.P3 –Center of Education and Entrepreneurship Support (Poland): non-governmental, non-profit organization founded in 2004 working in the field of youth, cooperating with businesses, universities, schools, enterprises and educational institutions. P4 – Inspectoratul Scolar Judetean Arad (Romania): public authority in education domain. It coordinates and monitors the activities of 244 Kindergarten from Arad County. It has a long and large experience in European projects development.P5 – BOON (Portugal): private enterprise with expertise in design and communication, with prior experience in the development of educational digital contents.

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