Student undertaking quadrat sampling.

MoBIDiC– The school goes to the beach

Monitoring the intertidal biodiversity with high school children

MoBIDiC is a novel marine outreach programme that focuses on the intertidal zone, an important ecosystem that offers a wide range of educational and scientific opportunities for students to learn more about marine life. CIIMAR* (Centre of Marine and Environmental Research) has make the first move within this programme and created a classroom on the beach (rocky shore) for a number of students from local high schools in Northern Portugal.

The main objective of this educational programme is science outreach. However, through these activities, getting regular information on the distribution of marine species is also expected. This will allow the detection of changes in the distribution of the species (disappearance of native species or/and appearance of invading species). This information is also essential to evaluate the environmental impacts caused by ecological disasters.

This programme also aims to increase awareness among young people of marine biodiversity, emphasizing the importance of long term monitoring and also to create strong links between schools and environmental research centers (like CIMAR) and programs (like MarBEF).

For more information please go to the MoBIDiC website