Blue Classroom
The ‘Blue Classroom’ initiative fosters ocean-climate education through interactive hands-on learning (i.e., storytelling and art-based approaches, research (i.e., water quality testing, biodiversity monitoring, ecosystem assessment using remote sensing) and mangrove restoration.
Activities Timeline
- May ’25: 4 days Ocean-Climate Literacy Workshop at Piali Ashar Alo School
- July ’24: FUGRO-ECSF Ocean Literacy workshop at Sagar Island, Indian Sundarbans
- Dec ’23: ECSF-Purbasha Ocean Literacy workshop at Chargheri Island, Indian Sundarbans
- July ’23: ECSF-Vivekananda Vidyaniketan Ocean Literacy workshop at IIEST Shibpur
- June ’23: ECSF-Chandernagore College Ocean Literacy workshop
- Mar ’23: ECSF-Piyali Ashar Alo School Ocean Literacy workshop
May '25: 4 Days Workshop at Piali Ashar Alo
ECSF Resource Person: Ms. Debarati Sengupta
July '24: FUGRO-ECSF Workshop
The Estuarine and Coastal Studies Foundation (ECSF) launched the ‘Ocean Literacy Initiative: Beyond the Waves’ in 2023. The main objective of the programme was to foster ocean-climate education among the youths of coastal communities. As a part of that initiative, on 12 July 2024, an
Ocean Literacy workshop was held in the premises of Vivekananda Vidyaniketan High School of Sagar Island, Indian Sundarbans, West Bengal, India. The workshop was supported by the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the FUGRO.
ECSF Resource Person: Dr. Sourav Paul, Ms. Debarati Sengupta & Mr. Jahar Sarkar
Dec '23: ECSF-Purbasha Workshop
A workshop was scheduled at the Purbasha school, a pre-school in Chargheri Village of Sundarbans with 49 kids and their mothers. The kids were mostly under 6 years. The organizing team educated them about mangroves conservation in a very playful manner with some fun activities like games, poetry, art, music, drawing etc.
ECSF Resource Person: Ms. Debarati Sengupta
July '23: ECSF-Vivekananda Vidyaniketan Workshop
With 90 high school students a workshop was scheduled at the Vivekananda Vidyaniketan school to educate the students about ocean and climate.
ECSF Resource Person: Dr. Sourav Paul & Ms. Debarati Sengupta
June '23: Chandernagore College
Over 100 college students attended invited lectures on 'Science Communications' on the 'World Environment Day'.
ECSF Resource Person: Dr. Sourav Paul & Ms. Debarati Sengupta
Mar '23: ECSF-Piali Ashar Alo Workshop
The 1st Ocean Literacy workshop was organized on 4th March, 2023 to create awareness among students about marine ecosystems such as mangrove forests, sea grasses, coral reefs, marine mammals which are all known for their biological productivity. The workshop was organized in the premises of Ashar Alo, a model school in Piali with a missionary zeal, a green village in South 24 pgs district, West Bengal, India. The speakers shared their valuable research insights in a very lucid manner to motivate the girls. Students and teachers wholeheartedly participated in the poster making session afterwards.
‘When the event organizers contacted the school principal, she shared that the 90% of the girls have never been to the sea….from there to introducing the underwater realm, ECSF OL team have been working hard to fill the gap.’
ECSF Resource Person: Dr. Sourav Paul, Ms. Debarati Sengupta, Dr. Bhaskar Deb Bhattacharya & Dr. Jhimli Mandal