Photo's description:

Students collecting and classifying anthropogenic marine debris on the beach of the Natural Regional Park of Migliarino, San Rossore, Massaciuccoli (Tuscany, Italy). Nowadays, the urgent need of long-term data series for solving environment related problems (such as biodiversity loss, beach litter etc.) can be satisfied by the so-called "citizen science",i.e. involvement of citizens and their active participation in scientific projects. This kind of scientific research, partly o wholly conducted by amateur or nonprofessional scientists, has been demonstrated in several studies to be effective both from the scientific and social point of view, since it brings people closer to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) disciplines, fills the gap between who produces science and technology and who benefits from it. Nevertheless, motivating and enabling all these volunteers in a long-term commitment to a scientific problem represents an essential problem. Project SEACleaner is a perfect example on how this long-term commitment can be guaranteed trough a comprehensive educational path that involves (mainly 1° and 2° Grade) students, not only in data collection but also in problem definition and data analysis. Project SEACleaner tries to identify and implement effective approaches for improving STEM teaching and learning - for students from 4 to 18 - by harmonising the existing educational plan, and prioritising hands-on learning to increase student engagement, interest, and achievement in the STEM fields. Project SEACleaner is a pilot project carried out in collaboration with Enterprises, Schools (ISA 2 “2 Giugno” in La Spezia) and Research Centres (such as the National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), the Institute of Marine Sciences of the National Research Council (CNR-ISMAR)) and other organisations such as the Liguria Cluster for Marine Technologies (DLTM).