School information
- School name
- 3rd Primary School of Ierapetra
- School year
- 2025-2026
- School website
- City
- Ierapetra
- Country
- Greece
- Sea basin
- Mediterranean Sea
- Region
- Coastal: <20 km from the sea
Project information
- Project name in native language
- Οι φύλακες της ακτής : Από την Παρατήρηση στην Έμπνευση!
- Starting date of the project
- End date of the project
- Level of education
- Primary school
- Project contact
- Categories
- Healthy Ocean
Objectives
Located on the coast of Ierapetra, our school, with a community of over 200 pupils, aims to strengthen the "blue link" between students and the marine environment. The specific goals are to analyze the root causes of coastal pollution, implement the principles of the Circular Economy through practical school-wide systems, and empower students to act as environmental ambassadors within the local community of the Ierapetra district.
Activities
Students transformed the local shore into a "living laboratory" through WWF’s "Adopt a Beach" program. They conducted systematic clean-ups, where they categorized waste by material and quantified the items, providing real-time data to a national database. In parallel, they managed specialized recycling stations for textiles (Recycom) and batteries (AFIS), tracking their collective impact via the Followgreen platform.
Creativity played a central role in their engagement. In Art class, pupils constructed original artworks using reclaimed fabrics, while in English class, they designed posters using plastic bottle caps. These posters featured slogans such as "Sea the Change," merging language learning with ecological advocacy. To ensure their message reached the public, students organized an exhibition of their work for a large-scale event hosted by the Municipality of Ierapetra, reaching the entire educational community of the region.
Approach
The project utilizes a Citizen Science and Multidisciplinary methodology. By participating in the WWF monitoring, students moved beyond passive observation to active analysis of pollution trends. The NoWaste21 virtual session provided the theoretical foundation for the Circular Economy, which was immediately applied through the school's recycling infrastructure. By integrating Art and English, the project ensured that environmental awareness was embedded across the curriculum. This strategy focuses on extroversion, shifting students from learners to leaders who will eventually install a permanent information board at the beach to educate visitors on marine protection.