I’d like to share the article “Cultivating Ocean Guardians: Evaluating a Novel Pedagogical Model for Enhanced Ocean Citizenship in Basic Education”, which explores a pedagogical model designed to foster Ocean Citizenship through a hands-on, systemic learning approach.

The model combines Ocean Literacy, citizenship theory, and citizen science, engaging students in activities like coastal monitoring, data collection, advocacy, and interdisciplinary school projects.

Over two school years, it involved 1,500+ students and 76 teachers across 36 schools in Portugal, showing that ocean education initiatives can be scalable and adaptable, even for schools without direct access to the coast.

The results demonstrate how experiential learning and citizen science can strengthen knowledge, skills, and personal connection with the ocean, empowering students to become Ocean stewards in their communities.