Tiny animals do live in the sand: a report of meiofaunal focused active-learning activities to increase ocean literacy in primary-school children

Summary

Ocean literacy is essential to increase awareness and educate people about the importance of our ocean. Students are among the main actors to build an ocean-literate society. Outreach initiatives, for instance, have an educational potential to transfer knowledge in a practical way. Here, we report an outreach activity with students about meiofaunal communities, an ecological important and underexplored group in marine environments. Through interactive talks and hands-on activities, we showed primary school children the main characteristics of the group and their importance to marine habitats. Using information obtained during the "Exploring the Diversity of Marine Meiofauna of the Azores 2019” summer school, the activity was regionally focused providing a broad perspective of the topic. Taxa and methods to deal with meiofauna were explained by dividing the topics into stations and knowledge transferred via playful and interactive activities. Students were involved in the activities interacting with mentors and raising questions about meiofauna and the marine environment. Direct contact with animals endemic to the Azores provided students with a new understanding of these understudied groups within the local marine environment. This interaction can increase the knowledge and awareness about marine life, achieving the principles of ocean literacy.