Engaging communities through citizen science: the Seaweed School and Community Network

The Seaweed School and Community Network (SSCN) project creates an online platform for knowledge sharing between communities and schools affected by nuisance seaweeds, thereby addressing the challenges posed by seaweed influxes and invasions.

Gloria Notarangelo & Victoria Dominguez Almela

The SSCN project is led by Dr Dominguez Almela and funded by the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute (SMMI) . This initiative engages communities across the Atlantic in monitoring and understanding these environmental changes through citizen science, with a particular focus on educational outreach.

Our initiative is built upon the foundational efforts of SARTRAC , SargSNAP! and SarTECH which provides tools and resources for those living with the invasive pelagic sargassum in the tropical Atlantic. Using this foundation, Science by  the Sea , Poole Together and Seaweeds Dynamics projects in the UK expand this engagement and impact further using the case of the blooming sea lettuce ulva over Poole Harbour. Across all these projects, we have successfully involved 17 schools from four countries (Mexico, Ghana, Jamaica and UK), creating teaching resources for ~60 teachers to lead workshops to raise awareness about the environmental impact of seaweed influxes, reaching over 2500 school children aged between 11 and 18 years. The activities are designed to educate children, encouraging them to spread their knowledge within their communities, thereby fostering a ripple effect of informed awareness. The data collected from the school engagement programme are currently being analysed by the research team, with a scientific paper under development to further explore the educational impact to date in Ghana and Mexico.

The Seaweed School and Community Network (SSCN) reach up to date

A key component of SSCN's efforts includes teaching communities how to use monitoring points for citizen science photography, where people can take pictures of the coast and upload them into the CoastSnap repository . These efforts have established 14 monitoring points in four countries, where participants document the state of the coast and seaweed conditions, contributing valuable data for scientific analysis.

Gloria Notarangelo, an intern funded by the SMMI, has been key in fostering international collaboration among the participating schools. She has developed a website for the SSCN , which serves as a platform to showcase project progress, expand outreach, and facilitate interaction among the schools. The website is not fully built yet, but we hope to be able to launch it across the engaged schools in September 2024.

The website will open a "Community" area soon that allows schools to share their experiences and challenges related to seaweed, fostering a sense of global connection and shared purpose. This “social-like feature” of the website aims to engage young students and make them an active player in the monitoring of seaweed. We hope that the opportunity to communicate with their peers will show them that they aren’t facing this challenge alone, and that their contribution could make a difference.

The SSCN project exemplifies how community engagement and education can empower individuals to contribute to environmental science and address ecological challenges collectively.