World Ocean Radio - Education and Ocean Literacy
Discovery of a curriculum developed for coastal Africa some years ago sent World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill on a journey of discovery and revelation about salt as a construct to be observed, understood, and taught. A western scientific perspective might teach students about salt from a chemistry-led lesson, whereas the African curriculum taught salt as serving a role in the enhancement of and as means to preserve food, the harvesting for work, as way of life, and as financial support by its production and harvest. This latter perspective is not first and foremost chemistry-led but community-focused, with methods of teaching and learning through the wisdom of Nature. What might we learn by diving in to teaching and learning a different way?
Ocean Literacy is a bottom-up movement driven by classroom teachers who understand the full implication of education, adaptation, and innovation for our future. In Venice, Italy, in 2024, a conference gathered to address today's issues, and to produce the Venice Declaration for Ocean Literacy to provide goals and agenda items for the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France in June of 2025. New goals and new items, or a new arrangement of old ideas? How might the agenda be revised? Tune in to World Ocean Radio this week to learn more.
This week on World Ocean Radio, two new books for readers to consider this fall: "The High Seas: Greed, Power, and The Battle for the Unclaimed Ocean" by Olive Heffernan, and "What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World Ocean" by Helen Scales. Both books evoke hopeful possibility while exploring the extent of the ocean and the implications of ongoing exploitation and excess.
It has been nearly twenty years since the Ocean Literacy Principles and Framework were first adopted by classroom educators to promote the ocean as a central focus for climate, water, food, health, exploration, science, and more. Today it has been incorporated into the agenda of the UN IOC; it seems Ocean Literacy is riding a new wave of interest and possibility. This week on World Ocean Radio we are laying out the basic tenets and truths of Ocean Literacy, describing the foundational assumptions that underlie the matrix, including the first principle: the earth is one big ocean with many features.
This week on World Ocean Radio: synopsis of a recent report by the UN Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission entitled "Call to All Voices of the Ocean – Consultation of Civil Society in Preparation of the Next United Nations Ocean Conference" addressing issues and providing recommendations and specific actions related to ocean climate, science, and policy. One glaring omission: a powerful specific call for action--a plan through communication that will amplify, advocate, educate, and initiate the change required to connect us all through the sea.
World Ocean Observatory is ever in search of new systems that convert knowledge into action, especially as they relate to ocean education and communication. Here on World Ocean Radio we often discuss the concepts and principles of ocean literacy, and the ways in which they can be distilled into learning opportunities for educators and students everywhere. We are pleased to report a prospective turning point in the ocean literacy movement: concepts that have been articulated into a new report out of the first Ocean Literacy World Conference held in Venice, Italy 7-8 June, 2024.
A November visit to Gloucester Massachusetts for an Ocean Literary Conference (NEOSEC 2023) afforded W2O staff an opportunity to take a field trip to the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute. Founded in 2008, the Institute is on the cutting edge of 21st century science, studying the marine environment for solutions to issues facing the ocean, sustainably fisheries, human health, to better understand ecosystems, and the ocean's medicinal value for today and tomorrow. In addition to their state-of-the-art research laboratories, GMGI is promoting technical training for lab techs through their Biotechnology Academy, a no-cost, year-long certificate training program with astonishing results.
We are nearing the end of the 33-part RESCUE series. This week we turn our attention to the young people around the world that are approaching outdated conventions with resilience and resolve. Thousands upon thousands of youth activists are having their voices heard and their calls to action heeded. We must reinforce their resolve, their commitment and their acceptance of RESCUE: R for renewal; E for environment; S for society; C for collaboration; U for understanding; and E for engagement.
This week we continue the multi-part RESCUE series with a highlight of the World Ocean Explorer virtual aquarium project of the W2O, an innovative tool by which to present responsible science, innovative education, and a unique virtual experience freely accessible to all. For further information, to promote and support, please visit worldoceanexplorer.org. Dive deep, share with your children and grandchildren, and spread the word. RESCUE as an acronym offers a plan for specific action and public participation: Renewal, Environment, Society, Collaboration, Understanding, and Engagement.
This week on World Ocean Radio we continue the RESCUE series with recommendations to further protect the ocean--by building ocean literacy into every level of education and action around the world.
This week we continue the multi-part RESCUE series with a shift from suggestions for change to analysis and observation of those things that are missing from the equation--namely ocean education and communication. And we assert that the need for ocean literacy has never been more important, and that we must consider ocean understanding as the key factor that enables communication and informs responsible decisions regarding the sustainable use of ocean systems and resources. RESCUE as an acronym offers a plan for specific action and public participation: Renewal, Environment, Society, Collaboration, Understanding, and Engagement.
This week on World Ocean Radio we're discussing the importance of ocean literacy and ocean education to transform our understanding of the ocean's contributions to human health and survival. We highlight the seven principles of Ocean Literacy and some perspectives that we can use to expand them into a set of curricular approaches that pertain to science, climate impacts and solutions for our future.
This week concludes the nine-part ocean literacy series, a framework for formal and informal education to help us better understand the ocean's influence on us and our influence on the ocean. We are challenging the existing methods for teaching and learning about the ocean, suggesting that traditional curricula could be re-examined and multi-disciplinary approaches explored so that we all may begin to understand the ocean as the defining feature of our planet and the influence it has on all things living on earth.
"The ocean is largely unexplored." So states the seventh and final Ocean Literacy principle, a series of fundamental concepts to help us better understand the ocean's influence on us and our influence on the ocean. World Ocean Radio's Ocean Literacy series continues this week with a discussion about how little we know about the ocean, and the need to designate vast marine protected areas around the world in order to protect the planet's natural biodiversity (known and unknown) from further destruction. This episode is part eight of a nine-part series on Ocean Literacy, an anthology of reflections, examples and illustrations that represent responses to the ocean and the environmental challenges we face.
"The ocean and humans are inextricably interconnected." So states the sixth Ocean Literacy principle, a series of fundamental concepts to help us better understand the ocean's influence on us and our influence on the ocean. World Ocean Radio's Ocean Literacy series continues this week with examples of the many ways that we are connected to the sea, from trade and transportation to the exchange of ideas and culture, to our connection through the global water cycle. This episode is part seven of a nine-part series on Ocean Literacy, an anthology of reflections, examples and illustrations that represent responses to the ocean and the environmental challenges we face.
"The ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems." So states the fifth Ocean Literacy principle, a series of fundamental concepts to help us better understand the ocean's influence on us and our influence on the ocean. This week: the complex diversity contained in the world ocean and the ways that ocean systems, relationships and processes might be observed and understood for scientific gain. This episode is part six of a nine-part series on Ocean Literacy, an anthology of reflections, examples and illustrations that represent responses to the ocean and the environmental challenges we face.
"The ocean makes Earth habitable." So states the fourth Ocean Literacy principle, a series of fundamental concepts to help us better understand the ocean's influence on us and our influence on the ocean. World Ocean Radio's ocean literacy series continues this week with thoughts on the complex diversity contained in the world ocean, and the importance of a healthy ocean as the universal operating system that provides fresh air, water, food, and every nurturing condition upon which all life depends. This episode is part five of a nine-part series on Ocean Literacy, an anthology of reflections, examples and illustrations that represent responses to the ocean and the environmental challenges we face.
"The ocean is a major influence on weather and climate." So states the third Ocean Literacy principle, a series of fundamental concepts to help us better understand the ocean's influence on us and our influence on the ocean. World Ocean Radio's Ocean Literacy series continues this week with an overview of the various ways that the ocean influences all weather and climate on the earth. In this episode we examine the behaviors that are most adversely affecting ocean chemistry. This episode is part four of a nine-part series on Ocean Literacy, an anthology of reflections, examples and illustrations that represent responses to the ocean and the environmental challenges we face.
Part 3 of 9 of the Ocean Literacy Series "The ocean and life in the ocean shape the features of Earth." So states the second principle of the ocean literacy curriculum, a series of fundamental concepts to help us better understand the ocean's influence on us and our influence on the ocean. World Ocean Radio's Ocean Literacy series continues this week with an overview of the various ways that the one oceanic system shapes the terrestrial landscape, the environment, the watersheds, plant life, and human existence. This episode is part three of a nine-part series on Ocean Literacy, an anthology of reflections, examples and illustrations that represent responses to the ocean and the environmental challenges we face.
"The Earth Has One Big Ocean With Many Features." So states the first principle of the ocean literacy curriculum, a series of fundamental concepts to help us better understand the ocean's influence on us and our influence on the ocean. World Ocean Radio's Ocean Literacy series continues this week with an overview of the various ways that the one oceanic system connects us all, with examples of the connections that occur worldwide: shipping, trade, circulation of water, watershed connections, weather, climate, food, coastal settlement, social connections, and much more. "One Big Ocean" is episode two of a nine-part series on Ocean Literacy, an anthology of reflections, examples and illustrations that represent responses to the ocean and the environmental challenges we face.
This week's episode of World Ocean Radio kicks off a multi-part series on the key principles of Ocean Literacy. The next eight episodes will provide an anthology of reflections, examples and illustrations that represent responses to the ocean and the environmental challenges we face. We will focus not only on ocean science and the ways that the Ocean Literacy curriculum aligns with the current educational system in the United States, but also on the ways that the ocean relates to climate, fresh water, food, energy, health, work, trade, transportation and much more.
The World Ocean Observatory is partnering with Main Street Bucksport this year for the 4th annual International Maritime Film Festival, a celebration of maritime heritage, spirit of adventure, concern for the environment, and ingenuity of boats and waterborne pursuits. In this week's episode of World Ocean Radio we discuss the upcoming festival and call for submissions, and reflect on the importance and power of the written word, photographs and film to make us aware of issues and to act toward change with new conviction.
For the past eight weeks we have been discussing the concepts of ocean literacy, a framework for formal and informal education to help us better understand the ocean's influence on us and our influence on the ocean. World Ocean Radio's Ocean Literacy series wraps up this week by challenging the existing methods for teaching and learning about the ocean, suggesting that traditional curricula could be re-examined and multi-disciplinary approaches explored so that we all may begin to understand the ocean as the defining feature of our planet and the influence it has on all things living on earth.
"The ocean is largely unexplored." So states the seventh and final Ocean Literacy principle, a series of fundamental concepts to help us better understand the ocean's influence on us and our influence on the ocean. World Ocean Radio's Ocean Literacy series continues this week with a discussion about how little we know about the ocean, and the need to designate vast marine protected areas around the world in order to protect the planet's natural biodiversity (known and unknown) from further destruction. This episode is part eight of a nine-part series on Ocean Literacy, an anthology of reflections, examples and illustrations that represent responses to the ocean and the environmental challenges we face.
"The ocean and humans are inextricably interconnected." So states the sixth Ocean Literacy principle, a series of fundamental concepts to help us better understand the ocean's influence on us and our influence on the ocean. World Ocean Radio's Ocean Literacy series continues this week with examples of the many ways that we are connected to the sea, from trade and transportation to the exchange of ideas and culture, to our connection through the global water cycle. This episode is part seven of a nine-part series on Ocean Literacy, an anthology of reflections, examples and illustrations that represent responses to the ocean and the environmental challenges we face.
