Geobiological centre based on The Maritime House

The successful grant has a strong connection to the fruitful development project The Maritime House, which the Department of Biology and all other departments at the Faculty of Science have been involved with since August 2013, and which is about to reach its project conclusion. Whereas the Geo and Bio Science Centre South will primarily be engaged with geological science, The Maritime House has focused on the ocean's resources.

Marianne Holmer, Head of the Department of Biology has been involved with The Maritime House right from the beginning and is pleased that it has given rise to the new project:

"The aim with the Maritime House was to develop twelve inspiring and motivating teaching programmes, with the intention of encouraging more secondary school students to choose a higher education study programme in science, health sciences or engineering, and also to get more boys to apply for higher education study programmes. I think we've had a lot of success with that, and the built-in continuing education of the teachers has also had a lot of positive feedback. I'm very proud that we've once again managed to get funding from the Region of Southern Denmark for a similar project, since they, as we do, consider The Maritime House to have been a success".

1200 participants

48 classes with a total of 1200 boarding participants have attended one of the 12 teaching programmes at The Maritime House in the last 4 years.'

As their starting point, all programmes at The Maritime House had the ocean's resources to further the aim of educating children and youth about the many uses of science and technology. The participants, who came from the whole education system from primary schools to higher education institutions, had their competences in nature, technology and health strengthened through a teaching style that blended theory with practice.

By connecting science with other disciplines, including health sciences, the aim was to give primary school pupils and secondary school students insight into the newest knowledge and technology in relation to the sustainable use of the ocean's resources. As an added benefit, the participating teachers from primary schools, secondary schools and university colleges received research-based continued training.

Positive feedback

The evaluation of The Maritime House paints a picture of a successful project that has had a positive effect on the participating upper secondary school students and their teachers. According to Rikke Svensson and Johannes Lørup Buch, who are outreach coordinators at the Department of Biology, there are several things about The Maritime House that show how rewarding the project has been:

"9 out of 10 students have been very satisfied with the programme offered by The Maritime House. Many of them have indicated that they wish to pursue a future career in science, so we can only be satisfied with the recruitment perspective of the project. We've managed to create the 12 teaching programmes as promised, and now at the project conclusion we have really focused on making sure the teaching material will continue to be used so that our Bioteam can carry on with the teaching," says Johannes Lørup Buch.

The Maritime House will continue on a smaller scale

At the Department of Biology, The Maritime House will continue by offering between 5 to 10 2-day programmes per year, and the Bioteam, including 7 biology students, will be involved with some of 1-day programmes.

The Maritime House project was made possible through financial support from the Southern Denmark Education Agreement of the Region of Southern Denmark. Odense Katedralskole was in charge of the project as its coordinator.

The project took place as a collaboration between SDU, upper secondary schools on Funen, University College Lillebælt, Langeskov School, Kerteminde Municipality and the local business community in and around Kerteminde, and brought together school pupils from all over Denmark.

More about the Geo and Bio Science Centre South

The natural and geoscientific project in relation to SDU's research station Svanninge Bjerge is a 3-year project that accommodates collaborations between SDU, primary and secondary schools in the Region of Southern Denmark, Øhavsmuseet, and Naturama.

The objective is to recruit more young people to the scientific higher education study programmes in the Region of Southern Denmark by encouraging the interest of children and young people in these disciplines through practically-weighted teaching and fieldwork focusing on nature's resources and nature as a source of knowledge through scientific experiments and investigations.

The aim of the project is to develop inspiring and motivating teaching programmes with "hands on" fieldwork in nature at their core for secondary school students who have chosen a line in science, geoscience, physical geography and biology as well as for primary school pupils in the general science subjects.

The teaching programmes will be developed by science teachers from Faaborg Gymnasium and the Broby sShools in collaboration with researchers and teachers from the Department of Biology via SDU's research station in Svanninge Bjerge and researchers and teachers from the Laboratory for Coherent Education and Learning, as well as Naturama and Øhavsmuseet.

The teaching programmes will be developed within a range of topics which can be delivered in different formats, depending on the participants' academic knowledge and time available. The topics will focus on geo- and bioscientific problems. As their starting point, these problems will use the forest in Svanninge Bjerge, where, for example, geomorphology's (creation of landscape) many facets, soil conditions, geology and climate have great significance for how the forest is expected to develop. In addition, scientific problems, particularly in the field of biology (habitats, ecology, zoology and botany), will be included in the teaching programmes to stimulate interdisciplinarity.

The teaching programmes are aimed at pupils in primary and secondary schools.