News
Microplastic Watchers has been awarded by the CSIC!
Microplastic Watchers has obtained the second prize in the category of Citizen Science Projects in the first edition of the CSIC Awards for Scientific Outreach and Communication.
02/15/2023
The project Microplastic Watchers, coordinated by the Center for Advanced Studies of Blanes (CEAB-CSIC) in collaboration with the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC), has obtained the second prize in the category of Citizen Science Projects in the first edition of the CSIC Awards for Outreach and Scientific Communication. The jury, which evaluated 233 proposals, has highlighted "its ability to introduce the scientific method to the youngest" and "to raise awareness of the importance of conserving the marine environment", as well as its "multidisciplinary nature".
From the Microplastic Watchers team we want to thank, on the one hand, the CSIC for the award received, and on the other, all those entities, educational centers and teachers who have believed in the project and have taken it into the classrooms. “The project has grown thanks to all the people who have participated, to whom we also want to dedicate this award”, affirms Gemma Agell, member of the Microplastic Watchers team at CEAB.
Microplastic Watchers was born in 2016 as a result of the growing problem of plastic contamination in the marine environment. Its objective is to involve citizens in the diagnosis of the presence, abundance and variability of microplastics and mesoplastics on beaches, as well as raising awareness about the problem. The project has reached Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Andalusia, and over the years around 9,500 people have participated.
In this project, teachers have found an ideal resource to work on the problem of plastic litter in the marine environment, since it deals with a close topic, with great social repercussions and facilitates the incorporation of citizen science in the classroom. The experience of these years working on citizen science in schools has led to the development of the teaching guide. You can request it at info@observadoresdelmar.es.