Scottish Seas Roadshow Highlights

We made the most of the sunshine this summer with two beach trips to Troon during the school holidays. We had a fantastic time with the Govan Community Projects Homework Club in July and the Inclusive Homework Club from Kinning Park in August where amazingly both groups found a mermaids purse during our scavenger hunt, and we collected around 7 kilos of litter each! We also handed out nature packs to the young people to take home and continue enjoying nature spotting - either through the binoculars or exploring the tiny things with the magnified pots. And importantly some sketchbooks and stationery to be able to record their finds!

August and September have been all about getting creative with schools to learn about the sea and explore ocean literacy in new and fun ways. In August, we teamed up with dance artist Dan Brown to head to Troon beach with the P7 class from St Alberts Primary School in Glasgow. Following a rather rainy start, the skies cleared for a wonderful day of beach cleaning, scavenger hunts and some interpretative dance. Pupils worked in groups to come up with a short performance based on a marine animal, including humpback whales, leatherback turtles and puffins.

We've also been working on a very exciting collaboration with the Super Power Agency, joining them on visits to two primary schools in Glasgow. We have selected 11 marine artefacts dubbed 'Treasures of the Ocean' for pupils to choose between and base a piece of creative writing on. While we thought that the hammerhead shark jaws would certainly be the winner, there has been some love too for the smaller items such as a seahorse, a scallop shell and a coral bracelet.

We've been spreading the message of the importance of connecting with the sea and enhancing ocean literacy with groups across Scotland. In September, we attended the first in-person meeting for the Scottish Ocean Literacy Coalition in Edinburgh and gave a presentation on the Roadshow as well as participating in a panel Q&A session.

The trip to Edinburgh also included attending Blue Marine Foundation's evening event at the Scottish Parliament which showcased messages and artwork from young people across Scotland who are concerned about the future of Scotland’s seas to amplify their voices. The Roadshow provided some perspectives from young people for this exhibition from schools in Edinburgh and Carrbridge as well as the Govan Community Project Homework Club and one of our youth residentials held in Millport in August.

In September, the project travelled north to Lewis and Harris for a week of Roadshow events. We ran sessions at 3 schools for 223 pupils, as well as conducting two beach cleans in collaboration with Clean Coast Outer Hebrides which contributed to the Great British Beach Clean. We cleared a whopping 24.5 kilos from the Braighe outside of Stornoway thanks to some wonderful volunteers braving the wind, including a fishing net too large to weigh! We also collected 4.5 kilos at Luskentyre, including another fishing net weighing 6 kilos.

Set against the stunning backdrop of Harris, we ran a mark making workshop taking inspiration from the land and seascapes as well as collecting materials from the beach to use in printing. A particular highlight was an ocean-themed zine workshop held at An Lanntair where we received some lovely feedback, including: “even before the session I had passion for the ocean, but if I was someone not interested I would have fallen in love with marine animals by the end of the session. So inspiring :)”. The trip was rounded off beautifully by a sighting of some common dolphins as the ferry headed back to Ullapool!

This year we held World Ocean Week, a dedicated week-long celebration of the ocean with events and activities kicking off from World Ocean Day on the 8th of June.  The Scottish Seas Roadshow got creative and collaborated with the Glasgow Zine Library on a session exploring the work of MCS and the importance of enhancing people's connection to the sea, helping to strengthen our ocean literacy engagement with inland communities (those who live more than 10 miles from the sea). We also learnt about the history of zine making and browsed the libraries environmental collection. Participants really enjoyed the hands-on creative element, making some fantastic zines, asking for the session to be longer and to run it again!

In May we visited the Inclusive Homework Club at Kinning Park to deliver some ocean literacy sessions with two of their ESOL groups (English for Speakers of Other Languages). We delivered an interactive workshop exploring Scotland’s marine life and ocean health, focusing on image-based learning as a way to enhance our knowledge and understanding of marine education. Participants made some beautiful mood boards including words and photos to reflect their learning about our connection to the ocean.

“We were proud to be part of the Scottish Seas Roadshow…it was wonderful to see everyone engaging with the topic, sharing ideas, and getting creative together.” - The Inclusive Homework Club

We have been super busy visiting schools across Scotland from Perth to Edinburgh to Inverness! Across 16 sessions ~400 pupils learnt all about Scotland’s wonderful marine wildlife, including Leatherback turtles and how they are being impacted by ocean plastic. The curiosity levels about the sea were so fantastic with questions like “what is water made of”, “do fish get thirsty?” and “can fish see the air?”. We also made some posters about the Deposit Return Scheme for the World Ocean Week competition. 

Last and certainly not least, we visited Cramond Beach with Friends of Scottish Settlers and several families, with ages ranging from 2-80! FoSS are a charity based in Falkirk dedicated to supporting newcomers to Scotland, including refugees and asylum seekers. For most of the participants it was their first ever trip to a beach. Using our Beachwatch survey forms we were able to remove a whopping 11kg of litter from the beach – equivalent weight of two bowling balls! It was a lovely day of sharing stories, food and making connections. What a fantastic thing it is to see people experience the joys of Scotland’s seas for the first time, as its so easy to take access to the coast for granted.