Background and materials for Schools Outreach projects

In 2019, POGO successfully partnered with the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) to conduct a major shipboard outreach initiative during the South-North Atlantic training Transect (SoNoAT).  This was a month-long shipboard training cruise, during which the students and teaching staff carried out a variety of outreach communications, including Skype sessions, blog posts and social media interactions. Skype sessions involved thirteen schools in five countries (two in Germany, eight in the UK, one in Ireland, one in Brazil and one in Japan) and a climate conference (Klimakonferenz Wir.Machen.Klima.) in Germany. It is estimated that these audiences included over 250 school children from ages between nine and 18 years old.  

During September 2022, a similar training cruise is taking place, as the research vessel travels from Bremerhaven, in Germany, to Cape Town, in South Africa.  This floating summer school - the ‘North-South Atlantic training Transect’ (NoSoAT), is a UN Ocean Decade Endorsed Action, and runs from 30 August to 29 September 2022.

Building on the successes and lessons learned in 2019, we are once again using it as a platform for public outreach and communication, with the addition of a new element. For the 2022 cruise, POGO, with the financial support of the Nippon Foundation, has purchased four ‘Miniboats’ from Educational Passages – a not-for-profit organisation. These are 1.5m long uncrewed vessels, which each have a satellite transmitter, allowing them to be tracked as they sail across the ocean, together with sensors for air and water surface temperature. They are supplied as a ‘build-your-own’ kit, designed to be assembled and decorated by school students as part of a guided project. 

We are partnering with oceanographic institutions in Ireland, Germany, Spain and South Africa, who are each working with local children to assemble the miniboats. These will then be deployed in the Atlantic, allowing the students to track the progress of their own vessel, and that of the others involved in the project, and learn about ocean currents, weather, technology, etc. The international collaborative nature of the project provides an extraordinary opportunity for school children in four different countries to interact with each other, their local oceanographic institution and researchers and with the young marine science trainees on board the ship.

The German Icebreaker departed from Bremerhaven on 30 Aug, and is carrying three of our miniboats, to be deployed during September:   

• The El Cisne Alto (The Tall Swan), assembled by students of Colegio Cisneros Alter, with the support of Dr Jesus Arrieta from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography in Tenerife, Spain.   

• The Schnelle Welle (Fast Wave), assembled by children participating in a summer activity camp, with the support of Dr Eva-Maria Brodte from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Helgoland, Germany  

• The Spiorad na Gaillimhe (Spirit of Galway), assembled by students of Scoil Bhríde Lackagh, with the support of Dr Sheena Fennell from the National University of Ireland in Galway, Ireland.   

The fourth miniboat (Yemaya), assembled by students of the Luhlaza High, with the support of Dr Thomas Mtontsi from the South African Environmental Observation Network in Cape Town, will be deployed by the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s Research Vessel Algoa, around the 27 September. 

You can follow the expedition on social media via Twitter (@POGO_Ocean and @AWI_Media),  Instagram (@pogo_ocean and nf_pogocofe) and Facebook (POGO.ocean and AWI).

Please see below for some downloadable materials, and links to other resources, which we hope will be of help to participating schools and other interested parties.