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Microplastics: A local action to aware environmental global problems
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This paper described a local community educational initiative in Spain designed to raise awareness of marine microplastic pollution by engaging citizens in beach monitoring activities. Participants collected and analyzed microplastic samples from local beaches, connecting global environmental problems to visible, local realities. The project demonstrates how citizen engagement in science can both generate useful data and build public understanding of microplastic pollution.
Marine plastic litter is a global problem that affects coastal areas as a result of their low density, which make them easy to spread. Once plastics reach the ocean, they break into smaller particles mainly by photo-oxidation, thermal oxidation and mechanical degradation, among others. In the last years, concern about microplastic contamination (1 μm - 5 mm) has clearly increased at many levels, specially the scientific, which has reported new hotspots of plastic debris [1,2,3]. In primary and secondary education, environmental awareness is included as part of the current the curricula (Ley Orgánica 2/2006, de 3 de mayo, de Educación and Ley 6/2014 de 25 de julio, Canaria de Educación no Universitaria). However, in the curricular specifications, local environmental problems, which are of special concern to identify students awareness, are not frequently included in the textbooks. The general aim of this contribution is to provide specific activities to raise environmental awareness on problems related with the presence of microplastics in the marine environment to non-university students. In particular, we provide a template for counting and separating microplastics as well as to describe the steps to make sensory boxes that allow students to understand the difficulties that marine animals have in discerning between plastics and food. The microplastic template and sensory boxes were tested on 86 students of 14 years old (middle school) and 23 students aged 16 (high school) of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, showing a successful and easy application of a local action to aware environmental global problems. Also see: https://micro2022.sciencesconf.org/426875/document
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Monitoring litter and microplastics in a highly polluted protected site of southern Spain: A research-based citizen science initiative
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Researchers combined citizen science monitoring with academic research to track plastic litter and microplastics at a protected but highly polluted site in southern Spain, generating both scientific data and community engagement outcomes. The project demonstrated how structured citizen science can produce research-quality data on plastic pollution while building public awareness.
Helping the Public Understand the Microplastics Issue: Integrating Citizen Science Techniques and Hands-On Education Experiences with Ongoing Microplastics Research
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This paper describes a citizen science and hands-on education program that engages the public in real microplastic sampling and analysis to build understanding of the marine microplastic pollution problem. Integrating public participation into ongoing research helps both collect data and increase environmental awareness.
Citizen Science for Assessment of Microplastics on Beaches: A Case Study in Mexico
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Researchers used a citizen science approach involving 26 volunteers to assess microplastic abundance and type on Mexican beaches, providing broad geographic coverage at lower cost than traditional monitoring. Participants used standardized materials and training to collect and identify microplastics, generating a representative database that also raised public awareness of coastal plastic pollution.
Observadores del Mar - Microplastic Watchers : Ciencia ciudadana ante retos medioambientales marinos
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This is a conference contribution to the 7th Spanish Congress of Science Communication describing the Observadores del Mar Microplastic Watchers citizen science project for marine microplastic monitoring. The entry summarizes the project approach and citizen engagement methods. This is a science communication conference abstract rather than an original research article.
Microplastic Pollution in the Coast of Tarragona
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Students and educators in Tarragona, Spain conducted a citizen science study measuring microplastic concentrations in coastal seawater and beach sand. The study found microplastics at all sampling sites, demonstrating that even relatively less industrialized Mediterranean coastal areas face significant microplastic pollution.
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