If you haven't heard already, we are grateful to have in our project the super-creative Big Van Ciencia, a team of passionate science communicators with a huge following on social media (and a knack for creating engaging and educational TikToks). With this enthusiasm by our side, it was no surprise that the OTTER Labs in Spain, coordinated by them, were set to be a success among the students! We have pictures and videos to prove it! Institut Moisés Brogg. In Spain, we cooperated with the Mare de Deu Montserrat school (a primary school, with our activities involving students aged 9 to 11 years old) and the Institut Moisés Brogg (where we worked with students aged 16 to 18).
Our first school on the list, Mare de Deu de Montserrat, is located next to the Llobregat river, and so the river can become the ideal setting and opportunity to implement outdoor activities. The students, accompanied by their teacher, two of our colleagues at Big Van Ciencia, and the head of the "Habitats" NGO, had a full-day of activities near the river. In spite of the rain, they were very excited and motivated to get out of the classroom and join the activities we prepared! They studied the water quality by collecting samples, they took notes, and even participated in games in nature. By experimenting and learning outside, they could consolidate the concepts they had already been spoken about at school and understand how they are applied in nature and why it's useful to have this knowledge.
The lessons they took with them from the activities organised outside were discussed during six 1-hour classes. The students concluded that, based on what they saw, the state of the river was poor, mostly because of plastic pollution. What is to be done to improve the Llobregat river? They discussed this in small groups and came up with original concepts: robots to clean the river. Using their creativity to the maximum, with recycled materials and the help of their families, they built models and later explained how these machines worked during the OTTER Project Science fair, organised at a Civic Centre in the city, much to the enjoyment of their peers.
You can watch the video showcasing these activities here.
