Am I bovvered?

Is it really worth trying to teach teenagers about the

coast, marine life and sustainable management? Why
not focus on the under 10s who are still interested
and enthusiastic about the environment, soaking up
knowledge like a sponge? Get the resources right for
the age group, says Lesley Smeardon, and anyone
can have their imagination and excitement fired.

Of course, take a teenager along to do Jason Birt,

I
t’s May and my family is at one of
the Low Tide Day free, ‘fun days the same thing, and it’s unlikely Falmouth Marine School
out’ which has advertised the usual you’ll get a similar reaction. And “Some of our keenest students in the
coastal activities: boat trips, rock with overtly caricatured popular past have been those from the middle
pooling, face painting, badge making images of the teenager as espoused of the country whose only experience
etc. For now, however, the rain is by the likes of Catherine Tate or of the coast is from their summer
coming down in bucket loads and, Harry Enfield in the Lauren and holidays”, says Jason Birt from the
surprise, surprise, my kids, in wellies, Kevin sketches, you’d be hard pushed Falmouth Marine School in Cornwall.
raincoats and hats, have begun to to find anything to inspire and “We run BTEC Nationals in Marine
moan that they’re getting wet and enthuse them. So why bother? Is it Biology and Ecology (based on the
cold and want to go home. possible to interest teenagers who are Countryside Management BTEC) for
not already enthused by coastal over 16 year -olds teaching marine
Partly protected by a marquee, my five issues or better to focus on a younger biology primarily and so our focus is
year old daughter, while queuing to age group? I asked four education generally this older age group. When
have her face painted, spots a professionals their views. they start our courses, many of our
fearsome creature in a container next students don’t know what they want to
to her – a huge lobster. ‘What is
THAT?’ she positively squeals at me,
physically squirming at this unknown Students from Falmouth Marine
beastie. Before I can answer, she spots School on the PADI dive course.
a large crab and by now just can’t
contain her excitement. Luckily, there
are people on hand to explain all
about these creatures and how, they
too, live locally. She is entranced for
the few minutes that her attention
span allows before returning to the
face painting task in hand.

On the way home she turns to me

and says that she just can’t believe
there are all these creatures living in
the sea. Not any sea, mind you, but
the sea just a few miles away from
where we live – fancy that! One
simple, visible display, and the sea
suddenly comes alive for her.

12 The edge Autumn 2006

do as a career. But over 50% end up
progressing on to higher education,
mostly reading marine biology with a
strong zoology element. They also tend
to develop a new found passion about
coastal and environmental issues
which they keep with them, no matter
what they do. So yes, you definitely
can interest young people in coastal
and marine issues, although they have
to be intrigued in the first place.”
So what attracts young people to do
these courses? “Our courses have a
high practical and interactive nature
to them, with a residential trip, field
visits and practicals playing a large
part”, says Birt. “In addition we also
offer subsidised opportunities to take a
PADI dive qualification which has
proved really popular. Students have
been competely blown away after
seeing first-hand the dramatic change
between a rocky shore at low tide and
the same area underwater at high tide.
The messages really do sink in.”
Naomi Biggs,
Thanet Coast Project
Naomi Biggs is Education Officer with
the Thanet Coast Project and her role
is to engage audiences who wouldn't
normally get involved in coastal
projects. She is only too aware of the
need to engage young people.
“Through working with excluded
teenagers, I’ve seen the effects of what
'giving up' on children does”, says
Biggs. “I have worked with children
around 13 years old who are
constantly excluded from lessons
through bad behaviour. Initially,
taking them to the beach for a school
visit was a shock to their system, but
once I gained a little bit of trust, they
actually got very involved in the
coastal visits that I ran. I think the
hands-on aspect of rockpooling was
perfect for them.”
“It’s true we have struggled to get
individual teenagers involved in our
regular public events programme
which include activities such as
rockpooling, sand/environmental art
and guided walks, although these are
really popular with the younger age
groups. Unless you work with existing
groups, it’s difficult to get teenagers to
come along. I naively once tried
organising a youth beach clean,
publicising widely and expecting
teenagers to turn up of their own
accord, but the only young people to
come were part of an organised group
– the Millennium Volunteers. Now, I
find linking into existing youth groups
is the best way to go, putting more
time into the event rather than
publicity in the hope that we’ll get
people turning up.
“A really successful project we ran in
this way, for example, was a hands-on
art day where young people designed
and made a Nature Trail. They then
helped to run the trail as an event at a
later date. I now also have a great
resource that I use on a regular basis
and could never have made it look so
good myself!”
Lissa Goodwin, Marine biologist
Marine Biologist Lissa Goodwin has
worked with schools for a number of
different organisations, including the
British Divers Marine Life Rescue, the
Marine Connection and the
University of Plymouth. “I have
found that 10-11 yrs (Year 6) are
really keen, absorb everything like a
sponge and take a lot of energy to
work with” she says. “By 13-14 they
are harder work, but by 15-16+ things
are turning around again and most
are good to work with. I’ve even
found 16-17 year olds who have
never been rockpooling before
suddenly engaged in the activity and
desperate to know more.”
“The way you approach different age
categories has to be geared to their
level of knowledge, taking into
consideration their background, ie do
they come from a coastal community
where the beach would be common
place, or are they land-locked? But
don’t always assume that if they come
from the coast they will know about it.
I am frequently amazed that parents
living by the sea do not make more
use of it and have found children in
Plymouth and Penzance who have
never been rockpooling. You just have
to make some judgments on the day
about the take home messages which
you are going to try to get across.”
Jonathan Potts, The National
Maritime Museum
A new marine education programme
about to open its doors to scores of 11-
16 year olds in January is being run by
the National Maritime Museum
(NMM) with funding from The Crown
Estate. The programme is unique in
that is has developed the first stand-
alone, curriculum-led resources
specifically relating to marine and
coastal issues.
“At the moment”, says Jonathan Potts
of the NMM, “the National
Curriculum (in England and Wales)
doesn’t have any distinct, marine and
coastal resources. You have to drag
issues from other areas of the
curriculum. Our aim is to redress this
by providing schools with distinct
marine and coastal resources based on
the geography, science and citizenship
areas of the National Curriculum.”
The programme has been piloted with
teachers and is due for its first visitors
in January 2007. But why choose this
age group specifically? As Potts
explains: “After engaging external
consultants to look at the optimum
age group for coastal and marine
education, we agreed to focus on 11-
16 years olds (key Stage 3 and 4). The
concepts around marine and coastal
Lissa Goodwin (far right) with
students on a British Divers Marine
Life Rescue training course.
BDMLR
The edge Autumn 2006 13

issues, such as sustainable use and
management, climate change,
biodiversity are hugely complex for
small children to get their heads round
and are much better suited to this age
group. At the National Maritime
Museum we try to promote a balanced
view of sustainable resource
management and equitable use of
resources, encouraging debate and
discussions with our school children.
Debates and discussions work
fantastically well for 11-16 year olds as
they are at the time in their
development where they are really
beginning to form their own ideas and
are keen to express themselves.”
So what resources is the NMM
providing for this age group?
Tips for engaging older children
v Make it a hands-on experience,
inspiring and memorable.
v Use new approaches but don’t
dismiss traditional ones.
v Develop the activity with your
audience to make it feel relevant
and to encourage a sense of
ownership.
v Relate the issues back to people’s
own lives, eg the marine-derived
ingredients in products they use
v Keep activities interactive. Present a
physical challenge and include
teamwork.
v All ages respond well to praise and
recognition of being part of
something.
v Work with established organisations,
such as schools and youth groups
rather than going it alone.
14 The edge Autumn 2006
The ‘Your ocean’ website from with the issues. Hopefully this will lead
the NMM provides an excellent, to a lifelong interest in our oceans and
interactive, online resource for how we can manage them at a
11-16 year olds. sustainable level”
“Research indicates that young people
can suffer from ‘ecoburnout’”,
Engagement for any age?
comments Potts. “They know about
For my daughter, her touch tank
climate change, sustainable
experience was a great first step in her
development etc but what empowers
understanding of the coastal and
them is the debate and relating the
marine world. And what is hugely
issues back to their life. Our
clear from the few insights given here
programme aims to do this. As
is that by getting the resources right,
mentioned, we include debates and
older age groups can tackle, with great
discussions and will be using actor
intelligence and innovation, the
interpreters to take on various
hugely complex and interconnecting
roles such as Government employee,
issues of sustainable resource use,
industrialist, conservationist to help
management, climate change and
with this. The involvement of The
conservation. Give the right stimulus
Crown Estate brings additional marine
and people really can be bovvered.
resource management, knowledge
and expertise as well as an extensive
network of contacts. We also have a
number of hands-on activities, gallery Organisations featured
trails and a chance to spend 20
The National Maritime Museum
minutes talking to an expert from the
The website provides an excellent,
marine community for real hands-on
interactive, online resource for including
experience with the issues.”
quizzes and information about the ocean
www.nmm.ac.uk/yourocean
“Our new gallery ‘Your ocean’, which
took 2.5 years to put together, is
The Falmouth Marine School
specifically intended to help relate the
The School runs a number of courses for
ocean to everyday life. In it, we
young people including the BTEC national
include everyday objects and the links
diplomas and national certificate in
they have to the ocean. For example,
marine biology and ecology
we explain how tomato ketchup
www.college-falmouth.ac.uk
contains carrageen, a red/green algae
and even mobile phones contain
Thanet coast
manganese found on the ocean floor.
The website contains a learning zone with
We’re not saying resource use is a bad
information and resources for more
thing but it’s important that people
information and formal education.
begin to make the connections
www.thanetcoast.org.uk
between the everyday things they use
and how this might impact on other
Marine Connection
areas of the world.
www.marineconnection.org
“While we are cautious about giving
British Divers Marine Life Rescue
too much of a technology focus to the
www.bdmlr.org.uk
programme, as research has shown
that children can suffer from IT
University of Plymouth
overload, we have invested in a new
www.plymouth.ac.uk/pages/view.a
video conferencing suite, and have
sp?page=11406
facilities for webcasts and blogs. For
us, it’s all about helping this age group
to form their own opinions by giving
them information that is relevant to
them and allowing them to interact