PRIMARY school pupils from Skye, Bute and South Uist are joining forces with scientists from two Scottish universities, with the children’s discoveries about marine life becoming part of a national research project.
Titled She Sees Sea Beasties on the Seashore, the collaboration aims to turn young Scots into “citizen scientists” by allowing them to contribute research findings to national projects.
Data collected will help scientists from Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt Universities create a map of where key marine animals – known as zooplankton – are found in west-coast waters.
Sea beasties will involve pupils (or teachers) catching the beasts with home-made plankton nets and viewing them through smartphone microscopes provided in a “citizen science kit”.
The kits will be supplied free to 50 primary schools across the Western Isles, on a first-come, first-served basis.
More than 100 high schools have used the smartphone microscope kits, with teacher feedback showing they are becoming an integral part of teaching biology.
“The data that is collected by these children will be added to our national research, which is really exciting,” said Laurence de Clippele, a PhD student at Heriot-Watt’s centre for marine biodiversity and biotechnology As part of British Science Week, which runs until Sunday, the scientists will this week visit Staffin and Kilmuir primary schools on Skye, Sgoil Dhalabroig on South Uist and a primary school on Bute. The project is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).
Dr Sebastian Hennige, a NERC independent research fellow based at the University of Edinburgh, said: “This is a chance for the kids on Scotland’s islands to find out how scientists make discoveries, and actually help us find out exactly which beasties are living off the coast of each island.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here