Ocean Observers website: last updates

Thanks to support from the European Union's EuroSea H2020 project, the Ocean Observers initiative has enhanced its website with new educational resources. All these developments aim to create a fit for purpose educational platform to share international marine science experiences related to in situ ocean observations.

The Ocean Observers website underwent a comprehensive overhaul to enhance user experience, supervised by a specialised scientific editor, OceanOPS  and Euro-Argo ERIC. Within the framework of the EuroSea project:

  • 20 educational resources underwent significant improvements, including new layouts and scientific editing, 12 new resources were added. These enhancements introduced new templates and provided detailed information for each resource. New illustrations were added to describe scientific experiments, which will be available for download.
  • Additionally, navigation was enhanced through keywords and cross-links to create pedagogical pathways among the resources.
  • Furthermore, 10 thematic sheets on ocean observing networks were completely rewritten, offering more in-depth insights into in-situ ocean observing instruments. A graphic illustrator worked on new illustrations in the form of cartoon drawings to depict the functioning of these observing instruments.
  • To further enrich the Ocean Observers learning platform, new educational resources, such as scientific quizzes and games, were developed and added.

One example of an educational resource targeting 9-11 years old students. It shows a practical experiment and offers pedagogical pathways through other resources on the platform to learn more about one or several topics broached in the experiment.

One example of a new educational resource: a quiz game to test your knowledge about ocean observing networks and the information they provide.  

Discover new educational resources about Argo floats:

The Ocean Observers is an international educational network composed of various stakeholders – including ocean scientists, teachers and educators, marine communicators and others, such as the general public and policy-makers and led by OceanOPS and Euro-Argo ERIC. This network is dedicated to fostering marine science outreach activities and sharing educational experiences related to in situ ocean observations.

The primary goal of the Ocean Observers initiative is to:

  • Share expertise and resources: the network serves as a platform for sharing expertise and materials related to ocean observations.
  • Facilitate collaboration: it supports discussions and encourages the development of new international collaborative activities among people engaged in marine science outreach programmes.
  • Curate educational resources: the ocean observers initiative assemble high-quality,  multidisciplinary educational resources, which are freely accessible through the www.oceanobservers.org website. This repository aims to create a global ocean observation learning platform, providing educators with valuable marine science information they could apply to their unique environment.