Climate change and its consequences at environmental, social and economic level will affect all of us, in particular the children of today who are the world’s citizens of tomorrow. Despite a wide coverage of the climate change problem in the media and some coverage in the curriculum and educational literature, the focus is mainly on global warming and extreme weather events like droughts or flooding, topics that directly influence the human population. Our project focusses on Ocean Acidification, which influences the whole marine ecosystem and only indirectly affects humans, for example by potentially reducing fish stock. Ocean acidification is not mentioned specifically in any UK GCSE or A-level specification so far, so there is a lack of coverage of this topic in primary and secondary schools.

With this in mind, we created the Hermit Crab Project and brought authentic up-to-date research to the classroom in several schools and to the Hull University Science Festival.

 

 

I am a marine biologist working as a Teaching and Scholarship lecturer. My PhD was on the role of pheromones in the reproduction of Hediste diversicolor, where I used behavioural and electrophysiological essays in conjunction with various chemical extraction and analysis methods. Although my career is not teaching focussed, I always kept this interest for chemical ecology alive and I am now associated with this research group working on the impact of ocean acidification on the chemical communication of marine invertebrates. I use our research and knowledge to lead Outreach Projects, where we create authentic science projects at local schools and public engagement events.