Blue Schools

What is Blue Schools?

Blue Schools is an International programme, coordinated by NRF-SAEON and funded by the Department of Science and Innovation in South Africa. The programme aims to increase ocean awareness and literacy to ensure that ocean knowledge is translated into action for sustainable oceans. The International Blue Schools Programme is a collaboration between different Blue Schools networks from countries around the world.

Objectives of the Blue Schools:

Contribute towards a network for ocean literacy and ocean awareness that will promote dialogue, scientific and cultural exchange among learners, educators and community members both locally and globally
Providing educators and learners an opportunity to showcase the work being done in ocean literacy and ocean awareness on an international scale
To enhance marine science skills and competencies in learners
Enhancing ocean literacy and awareness in communities through ocean dialogues

We have the ocean that connects people from different parts of the world and through the Blue Schools programme learners have the opportunity to learn about the interconnectedness of ocean ecosystems and the impact that human activities have on our ocean. The Blue School Programme provides learners with an opportunity to explore careers such as marine biology, oceanography, environmental conservation, and sustainable resource management.

Who can join Blue Schools?

The Blue School programme is open to all South African learners between grades 6 and 11.

What you need to do and when?

The educators need to assist with mentoring the learner research projects and providing learners with the activity sheets in this booklet to complete the portfolio activities.

The learners need to complete and submit the portfolio by 15th May 2025.
The research project proposal (or research plan) submission needs to be emailed by 27 March 2025.
The final research project submission needs to be emailed by 31 July 2025.
Should your project be shortlisted, you will need to present your projects using slides online on the mid September 2025.
The best performing learners from the Online Competition will be invited to our in-person Blue Schools Conference on 16-18 October 2025.

Queries for the portfolio activities and research project need to be submitted to education@saeon.nrf.ac.za.

Tell me more about the Research Project!

Learners need to design a research project that is related to the ocean. We encourage learners to collect their data (have a look at the Citizen Science section below). Although, we do understand that sometimes it is not always possible to collect ocean data, and we have provided some resources on where you can find freely available ocean data.

The research project should also look at whether this research can solve a marine problem and the impact that this research would have. We would also encourage you to take action after you have completed your research project by solving the problem that you have identified

The research proposal needs to be emailed to education@saeon.nrf.ac.za by 27 March 2024.

The final research project needs to be emailed to education@saeon.nrf.ac.za by 31 July 2024.