Escola Básica de Vilarinho do Bairro

LAGOA – Look About the Ground and OverAll

Vilarinho do Bairro, Portugal

2nd FUNDING CALL

LAGOA project to enhance understanding of the Lagoon of Torres’ ecosystem services. This initiative involves more than 100 students from primary school and 8th grade in research-based activities, including data collection on water quality, biodiversity mapping, and community engagement.

Project Objectives:

1. Classify and Map Ecosystem Services: Students will identify and map the lagoon’s support, regulation, cultural, and provisioning services.
2. Water Quality Monitoring: Regular data collection on pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and organic pollution will be analyzed over time.
3. Citizen Science Participation: Engage students in citizen science, sharing data on platforms like GLOBE.gov to contribute to global research.
4. Awareness through Creative Projects: Develop a bilingual children’s book on freshwater conservation and transform it into an eBook and videobook.

Key Activities:

1. Workshops and Outdoor Classes: Participate in the lagoon’s ecosystem services workshops and outdoor classes.
2. Community Events: Collaborate with parents and locals in events like “Walk for the Heart” and the Environmental Fair.
3. Artistic Projects: Create handicrafts from lagoon reeds and develop an exhibition on ecosystem services.
4. Scientific Collaboration: Partner with local universities and aquaculture producers for research projects on marine prairies and microalgae production.
5. International Exchange: Share results and activities with partner schools in Poland, promoting an exchange of good practices.

For the first activity, students travelled to the Torres Lagoon in the morning, where they had a lesson with CFE-UC researcher Filipe Martinho on the fish of the Portuguese coast, focusing on the diversity of life strategies and habitat use, methods of identifying the various stages of the life cycle and determining the age and growth of fish – by analysing otoliths, biotic relationships and food webs.

With teacher Dilma Simões, they listened attentively to the ‘Secrets of the Lagoon of Torres’, its importance for the locality, its cultural traditions and its implications for ecosystem services (supply and cultural).

With Natural Sciences teachers Alexandra Gonçalves and Carla Lourenço, they collected water samples from the lagoon to be analysed in the classroom. They shared the data on citizen science platforms such as GLOBE.gov.

They also had the collaboration of Art teacher Paula Lucas to draw inspiration from the nature of the place, as she will be illustrating a children’s book about the Lagoon of Torres, and Joana Maciel, from SEEDS-Environmental Education, who will be the author of the children’s book in bilingual Portuguese-English and English-Polish format.

Phases of the Project:

1. Coordination (August-September 2024): Planning activities, creating the project logo, and collaborating with local authorities.
2. Implementation (October 2024-May 2025): Students conduct research, collect data, and engage in community events and international exchanges.
3. Dissemination (June-July 2025): Publish and present results through various media, including exhibitions, local newspapers, and social networks.

Expected Outputs:

• Bilingual Children’s Book: Focused on freshwater conservation and ecosystem services.
• Educational Materials: Open-access resources in Portuguese, English, and Polish.
• Art Exhibitions: Highlighting the Lagoon of Torres’ ecosystem services and cultural heritage.
• Environmental Awareness Campaigns: Promoting the importance of ecosystem conservation through school and community events.

The LAGOA project aims to foster a deep connection with nature and promote sustainable practices for protecting freshwater ecosystems by involving the entire school community and local stakeholders.