Baltic Sea Matters 2-5/2025

Project topics:

• Pollution, plastics, microplastics
• Ocean, water ecosystem conservation
• Active citizenship, awareness raising campaign 

Project Summary

Our project is about active citizenship. The whole school community will become more sustainable. Students, teachers and inhabitants of Orivesi will learn how to take action to protect the well-being of the Baltic Sea. All students and teachers of our school will join the project work, its eTwinning activities and all project events.

Our students have an active role in the development of the school culture. With the BlueLightS project funds our students will organize new activities connected with the Baltic Sea and ocean literacy. All students of the school have the possibility to become active in the school society and take a more active role in the project work. The project activities will be organized in a way that all teachers and students will join the activities. The project work will include eTwinning with a German partner school. The project work will also be part of the school’s global Eco-School Programme work. Our school will join the European Blue Schools network during the project period.

Students will gain authentic learning experiences when planning and organizing the project events at school and at Oriveden Kampus and when preparing the project exhibition on the info wall of the town hall. Students will learn important skills needed for organizing events for the whole school community and in collaboration with project partners. eTwinning activities offer the possibility to communicate about the protection of the Baltic Sea in a foreign language with foreign students.

Context, target groups and needs

Oriveden yhteiskoulu is located in Orivesi which is a part of the catchment area of the Baltic Sea. Oriveden yhteiskoulu is an inland school that collaborates actively with other members of UNESCO Baltic Sea Project Network. Our school has been an eTwinning school for two years and this school year our student Agents have started an eTwinning project with one of the German BSP schools. We will integrate our Blue LightS project activities as a part of our eTwinning project “Water Connects”. 

During the project period, our student will organize Blue School Theme day at school. We will also organize a workshop day at Oriveden Kampus, in the city centre close to our school, where students, their parents and staff members of our school can learn ways to protect the Baltic Sea. Our partner schools and all local citizens are invited to join the workshop day. The aim is to share information about the connection of the catchment area with the well-being of the Baltic Sea. We also aim to teach people how the Baltic Sea and Ocean affects our own well-being. 

Project timeline

2/2025 project start

3/2025 eTwinning “Water Connects”

4/2025 Orivesi Blue Lights event at Oriveden Kampus

5/2025 Dissemination event of the project results at school and application to join the European Blue Schools network

Project objectives

The role of inland schools in teaching ocean literacy: 

• We aim to teach students, teachers and other local residents how our actions in our inland city affect the well-being of the Baltic Sea. 

The role of the Baltic sea and the ocean in our well-being: 

• We aim to teach about the connection between people and the ocean. We focus in particular on the role of the Baltic Sea. 

Students’ active participation in the development of the school culture: 

• New students will be invited to join the group of Agents. 
• All classes will participate in the eTwinning project.The project activities are designed in an multi-disciplinary way so that it is easy to participate in during the lessons of different school subjects. The learning objective of the Twinning activity is to learn that we can make a difference by taking actions. 
• The project event at Oriveden Kampus offers a communal approach to the project topic. The students, teachers and other people from Orivesi can learn together about the relationship between people and the Ocean. The workshops will be given by students, teachers and representatives of the nature protection associations. We will also invite the schools of UNESCO ASPnet Baltic Sea Project to join the event online or in person.
• At the end we will join the European Blue Schools Network. Our students will organize a dissemination event at our school where we share info about the Blue Schools network and about the results of our project work. We will disseminate the project results via the school homepage, social media account of the schools. We will share info about the project results on the info wall of the town hall. 
• We will evaluate the project work by using Google Form online surveys at the beginning of the project period, after each project activity and at the end of the project period.
  
  

Project results

We will organize one big project event at Oriveden Kampus and one event at our school. 

There will be concrete outcomes from the eTwinning project and workshops given during the Kampus event. These outputs will be disseminated at school, on the internet and at town hall. We hope that there will be a bigger number of Agents taking actions in the school community.

The outputs will be development of collaboration skills, active participation in the school and in the local community, understanding and knowledge about the importance of the actions taken in the catchment area for the well-being of the Baltic Sea.

The school community will take important steps in making ocean literacy as a permanent part of school studies of different school subjects. The Agent activity, Eco-School programme and UNESCO BSP activities of our school will be developed, there will be more emphasis on ocean literacy at school thanks to the project work. 

The students will have new possibilities to take climate actions and to take an active role in society. They will learn important skills such as collaboration skills, organizational skills. The students will gain invaluable experience in international project work and in working in an international working environment. 

The project participants will learn new, sustainable ways to act in their daily life. They will organize project events and activities at school and an event for all inhabitants of Orivesi at Oriveden Kampus, they will also create an exhibition, an info wall, promoting the project results at town Hall. The teachers will plan their lessons and teach in a way that teaching ocean literacy will be a permanent part of their lessons. 

 

Collaboration with a Local Partner

The project event at Oriveden Kampus will be organized together with local partners, such as Oriveden Luonnonsuojeluyhdistys and city staff members responsible for the sustainability work of the city. The partner schools in Finland and in the other countries in the Baltic sea region schools of the UNESCO ASPnet Baltic Sea project network will be invited to join the Kampus event online or in person.

We will present the project outcomes during the project dissemination event at school. In addition, the participating students will write blog posts and publish social media posts about the project work. The Agents will publish updates about the project work on the school homepage. 

Work in a Multi-Disciplinary Manner

The project activities are all multi-disciplinary: Learning concrete ways to act to protect the Baltic Sea and to understand the role of people in the well-being of the Baltic Sea as well the importance of the ocean for our own well-being will be a part of all different school subject studies. Every subject teacher can easily participate in the project activities. The project activities offer teachers great examples on how to integrate ocean literacy as a part of their own teaching.

Fostering Land-Sea Interaction

Our school is located inland, but we have many coastal schools in Finland and other countries located in the Baltic Sea region in our UNESCO BSP network. These coastal schools will be invited to join our project workshop at Oriveden Kampus online or in person.

Bringing in a European dimension

We will have an eTwinning collaboration with a German partner school.We will invite the partner schools from the Baltic Sea area to join our project event at Kampus online or in person. We will join the European Blue Schools network and we hope to inspire other UNESCO BPS schools to join the European Blue Schools community as well.