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Unraveling the Invisible Water World... through the MIA project

Daniela R. De Figueiredo1, 2*
  • 1 Dep. Biology & CESAM, University of Aveiro, Biology, Portugal
  • 2 ASPEA (Associação Portuguesa de Educação Ambiental), Portugal

The project entitled “MIA – unraveling the Invisible Water World” aims to increase the Ocean Literacy by using artistic ways to explore the topics of plankton ecology and its vulnerability in the marine and coastal systems, particularly under a climate change scenario. The phytoplankton organisms, in particular, in spite of their microscopic dimensions, they play an extremely important role as the basis of the aquatic trophic chain . This is a major topic discussed in MIA sessions as well as the impacts of phytoplankton massive growth (blooms) over the ecosystems and organisms, including humans (de Figueiredo et al., 2004; Moreira et al., 2013). However, the biotechnology and astrobiology applications are not also forgotten (Cwikla et al., 2014; Micallef et al., 2014). Although across Europe the interest and concern for the vulnerability of marine ecosystems is generally increasing (Gelcich et al., 2014), there are still considerable cultural gaps among populations that may still overlap this trend. This requires actions taken at the local and region levels. The MIA project integrates science and arts (music, painting, animation, dance, theater) in science communication / environmental education sessions in order to stimulate emotional intelligence as a way for a more effective awareness. It is known that narrative / storytelling can be a powerful tool for science communication (Dahlstrom, 2014; Lanza et al., 2013). Arts may play an essential role for translating a “boring” scientific message through an easier, emotional and thus more interesting interface, in spite of all the controversial ethical discussion this approach may generate (Dahlstrom and Ho, 2012). The main target public includes children from all school levels, although several actions are also performed for the general public, encouraging lifelong learning. This required different strategies for the different targeted public. The project gathered a multidisciplinary team (including scientists, teachers, musicians, actors, animation making) and several schools/institutions across de the national territory. From all the subjects discussed in MIA sessions, the morphological diversity of cyanobacteria and microalgae, shown through Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images, has been always considered the most captivating issue, for both younger and older participants, showing a crossing-age topic of interest, which may also be discussed by a whole family at home. The artistic exploration (through music, painting, puppet shows or animation making) of the scientific themes showed to largely increase the interest of the targeted public sectors. Nonetheless, the age-specific strategies planning showed to be essential for the project successful outputs.

Acknowledgements

Funding

The presented work was co-financed by funds from EEAgrants (PT02 - Integrated Marine and Coastal Management). The author's research is supported by FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) in the form of a post-doc fellowship (SFRH/BPD/74184/2010).

Acknowledgements

A special thanks must be made to all the artists involved in the project as well as all the teachers and students that participated in it.

References

Cwikla, J., Milroy, S., Reider, D., Skelton, T., 2014. Pioneering Mars. Am. Biol. Teach. 76, 300–305. doi:10.1525/abt.2014.76.5.2

Dahlstrom, M.F., 2014. Using narratives and storytelling to communicate science with nonexpert audiences. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 111, 13614–13620. doi:10.1073/pnas.1320645111

Dahlstrom, M.F., Ho, S.S., 2012. Ethical Considerations of Using Narrative to Communicate Science. Sci. Commun. 34, 592–617. doi:10.1177/1075547012454597

de Figueiredo, D.R., Azeiteiro, U.M., Esteves, S.M., Gonçalves, F.J.M., Pereira, M.J., 2004. Microcystin-producing blooms—a serious global public health issue. Ecotoxicol. Environ. Saf. 59, 151–163. doi:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2004.04.006

Gelcich, S., Buckley, P., Pinnegar, J.K., Chilvers, J., Lorenzoni, I., Terry, G., Guerrero, M., Castilla, J.C., Valdebenito, A., Duarte, C.M., 2014. Public awareness, concerns, and priorities about anthropogenic impacts on marine environments. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 111, 15042–7. doi:10.1073/pnas.1417344111

Lanza, T., Crescimbene, M., La Longa, F., D’Addezio, G., 2013. Bringing Earth Into the Scene of a Primary School: A Science Theatre Experience. Sci. Commun. 36, 131–139. doi:10.1177/1075547012473841

Micallef, M.L., D’Agostino, P.M., Al-Sinawi, B., Neilan, B.A., Moffitt, M.C., Agostino, P.M.D., Al-Sinawi, B., Neilan, B.A., Mof, M.C., 2015. Exploring cyanobacterial genomes for natural product biosynthesis pathways. Mar. Genomics 21, 1–12. doi:10.1016/j.margen.2014.11.009

Moreira, C., Vasconcelos, V., Antunes, A., 2013. Phylogeny and biogeography of cyanobacteria and their produced toxins. Mar. Drugs 11, 4350–69. doi:10.3390/md11114350

Keywords: Science Communication, Phytoplankton, Bloom ecology, Trophic chains, Children and adolescents

Conference: XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies, Porto, Portugal, 5 Sep - 9 Sep, 2016.

Presentation Type: Poster Presentation

Topic: 5. ECOTOURISM, ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OUTREACH

Citation: De Figueiredo DR (2016). Unraveling the Invisible Water World... through the MIA project. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies. doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2016.05.00218

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Received: 28 Apr 2016; Published Online: 03 Sep 2016.

* Correspondence: PhD. Daniela R De Figueiredo, Dep. Biology & CESAM, University of Aveiro, Biology, Aveiro, 3810-193, Portugal, dfigueiredo@ua.pt