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The educational program represents the pillar of support for reserve management for a very good reason since the fundamental principle in the protection of the environment is to render known and understood the delicate equilibrium of the environment to be saved and protected. In our case the sea is the environment to be protected and discovered. For many it is still a hostile and mysterious world. The protected sea area should represent a “window” through which it can be observed and discovered. And all this is done with adequate educational programs.
Every year 7.000 students, ranging from the primary school children to the university students, attend Miramare laboratories and seashore areas dedicated to the environmental educational activities. Lots of school groups come from all over the regional territory, but there are also good numbers of students (40% of the total amount) that come and visit Miramare Marine Environmental Education Centre (C.E.A.M.) from the rest of Italy.
The lay-out of a visit varies according to the teacher needs and the educational program. Visits can be either a half-day or a full-day experience, but they can also be a proper educational stay of several days. No matter how long it is, an educational visit is always a full immersion in the marine environment, where students learn to understand its fragile and fascinating dynamics. Observational activities and analyses along the shore are alternated to microscope sessions in the lab and, during the summer, to snorkeling tours where visitors get the chance to dive in the study area.
Miramare has become a fixed appointment for all students living in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Indeed, students often get back to Miramare at regular intervals of time and develop educational programs of increasing complexity: environmental and marine issues are dealt with more and more in depth, keeping the pace with their scholastic level of growth.
For the teachers, Miramare and its Environmental Education Centre have become an essential reference point. At Miramare they get the chance to do field activities, and they do also develop a special and very collaborative relationship with the staff of biologists that follow the educational sector. Together they can plan discovery routes of the marine ecosystems specifically designed on the educational needs of each classroom.
The quality of Miramare educational activities is widely demonstrated by the data gathered over the years by means of evaluation questionnaires. Such remarks are a tangible and objective proof showing how Miramare is able to fulfil teachers’ expectations of a student involvement in practical activities and of their awareness towards the environment.
One of the most updated educational tools of Miramare is the distant learning platform, accessible through internet. Such a tool is available for teachers willing to consult publications on marine topics or to exchange information and ideas with the Reserve biologists. Such a constant feed-back is extremely useful for both parts, and it is crucial for testing novel activities and for identifying expressions and methodologies which aim to be as close as possible to the scholastic world.
Nonetheless, the concept of environmental education is not enough per se when it comes to the newest learning approaches. Indeed, a very useful and immediate tool involved in the educational process is the concept of environmental interpretation. Such a concept is linked to the experience of direct sensorial inputs, which enhance the storing of all messages and feelings involved in the facilitation of learning. For this reason the Miramare Visitor Centre hosts a multisensorial path, where visitors can participate actively to the sealife discovery and get closer to the marine organisms, being stimulated and involved both at the physical and the emotional level.
The Visitor Centre consists of some modern and bright rooms where a path throughout the Reserve marine environments has been recreated, and where it is possible to get to know many of the organisms that live within them through the high number of fish tanks. It has been planned according to the most updated explanatory theories, in order to transform the visit in both a fascinating and an educational experience.
The Reserve holds a close link with the educational section of the Italian WWF and it represents an acid test of WWF programmes due to the flexibility and the efficiency of its management. This has made Miramare a driving model for many experimentations of school programmes and alternative formative methodologies.
Since 1989, Miramare belongs to the network of the WWF-Italy Educational Centres, through the educational programmes of the CEAM. Since Miramare owns all the appropriate characteristics for operating on environmental education following the Italian Ministry of Environment ratifications, the CEAM has been recognized as Experienced Site in the National System of Environmental Education (Sistema Nazionale di Educazione Ambientale INFEA - Informazione, Formazione, Educazione Ambientale).
Due to the considerable experience achieved from 1995 to 1998, the Reserve organized, for the WWF International, an intensive international environmental education course, the so-called “Blue school”, directed to MPA managers of the Mediterranean Sea and to the staff from non governmental organizations. The course aim was to create eco-managers within the staff of Mediterranean NGO’s, supporting the planning and realizations of management projects for developing Mediterranean costal areas.
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