The Education Department of Ocean Space offers targeted courses in citizenship and sustainability, along with introductions to topics relating to oceanographic issues, culture and contemporary art.

The educational program seeks to engage and involve both the teaching community and students of all levels on issues concerning the pressing challenges facing the environment and society around the world, with the aim of establishing a new “ocean generation”.

One of the main objectives is to help foster the growth of future citizens with an awareness of the ocean’s importance to humanity, a vital resource that needs to be protected to safeguard the existence of all forms of life on planet Earth.

The Education Department has launched a long-term educational experience to give everyone a chance to be actively involved, and to make a serious contribution towards safeguarding our planet.

OCEAN SCHOOLS: BECOMING AS BIG AS THE OCEAN

Students aged 3 to 19 will explore an interdisciplinary path this year, called "Ocean The Sign," tailored to different grade levels. It is based on social design and communication in all its forms. They will be guided in creating digital and analog audiovisual materials in the classroom.

The new sessions will delve into a vision that borrows from both science and art, the practice of observation, using sign language as a medium for understanding, observing, collecting, documenting, and creating a collective, visual, and performative narrative about the sea and its infinite relationships. These sessions will be in collaboration with Paola Vitale, a teacher, writer, and science communicator, artist Giulia Bruno, and researchers Angela Pomaro from the Institute of Marine Sciences CNR-ISMAR and Olga Capirci from the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies CNR-LaCAM.

• OCEAN THE SIGN: A SEA OF SIGNS. Course designed for kindergarten classes (ages 3-5)

DATES

January 31, 2024, at 11:00 AM - Online Meeting

April 8, 2024 - Delivery of students’ digital materials

April-June 2024 - Visit and workshop at Ocean Space (with mandatory reservation)

"It's the sign that makes the de-sign," wrote Bruno Munari. It's the water that de-signs the shape of the Earth. It's with the first signs that a child learns to write. It's through observation that shapes, points, and lines, whether straight, curved, or zigzag, take form. But how many forms can water have? What about the sea? Or its creatures? In the first phase, participants will be guided in observing images relating to the many elements that make up the landscape, paying particular attention to the various forms that water can take depending on the spaces it occupies. Through pre-writing exercises and water games, the children will be led to build a collective alphabet of marine signs.

• OCEAN THE SIGN: PATTERN OCEAN. Course designed for elementary school classes (ages 6-10)

DATES

February 7, 2024, at 11:00 AM - Online Meeting I

February 21, 2024, at 11:00 AM – Online Meeting II

April 8, 2024 - Delivery of students’ digital materials

May 22, 2024 - Final event at Ocean Space

Everything around us is made of shapes, lines, rings, colored spots, and "signs" of various sizes. Throughout history, humans have observed the great 'book' of Nature to derive their own patents and visual alphabet. Children will deepen their understanding of the practice of observation through a perspective that borrows from both science and art. They will use drawing and Sign Language as a medium to explore, observe, collect, document, learn, and build by creating patterns with graphic signs that only the sea with all of its enchanting creatures can offer.

• OCEAN THE SIGN: DE-SIGN THE LANDSCAPE. Course designed for middle school classes (ages 11-13)

DATES

February 2, 2024, at 11:00 AM – Online Meeting I

February 9, 2024, at 11:00 AM – Online Meeting II

February 16, 2024, at 11:00 AM – Online Meeting III

April 8, 2024 - Delivery of students’ digital materials

May 22, 2024 - Final event at Ocean Space

Observation and analysis of the various elements that make up a landscape play a fundamental role in the educational process: from the archetype of the tree, an image of fundamental symbols and the profound questions of humanity (Good and Evil, Life and Death, Knowledge, the Human and the Sacred), to water, a primordial source of all things, to the positive and creative energies that arise from contact with the natural world. The identity of each historical era recognizes forms and aspects in the landscape that are characteristic of the time, projecting, almost like a reflection, the models of its aesthetic categories onto a aspect of nature. In the educational course Ocean The Sign, the graphic and gestural "sign" will be used as a medium to explore, observe, document, and re-create a collective and visual narrative of the sea and its infinite relationships, using both drawing and photography.

• OCEAN THE SIGN: IN THE SIGN OF THE OCEAN. Course designed for high school classes (ages 14-19)

DATES

February 8, 2024, at 11:00 AM - Online Meeting I

February 22, 2024, at 11:00 AM - Online Meeting II

February 29, 2024, at 11:00 AM - Online Meeting III

April 8, 2024 – Delivery of students’ digital materials

April - May 2024 - Visit to the new exhibition at Ocean Space

During the educational course Ocean The Sign, students will be guided by scientists and artists in the practice of observation, using various methods to explore the marine world up close. The students will use "the sign" - understood in the dual sense of graphic signs (design) and "words/signs" in Sign Language (the language used by deaf people) as a means of exploration and furthering understanding. Through a graphic and photographic process, they will create a new visual narrative of the sea.

Activities are completely free but registration is required at the following link.

• Friday, September 22, 2023, from 3:30pm to 5:00pm, "Who Will It Be? Science in Transformation - Open Day Schools at Ocean Space" for teachers of all levels in person, with Paola Vitale, teacher, writer, and science communicator, followed by a guided tour of the exhibition.
• Thursday, October 12, 2023, from 4:30pm to 5:30pm, "Did You Know...? ABCs of the Sea" in collaboration with Angela Pomaro from the Institute of Marine Sciences CNR-ISMAR. Online event via Zoom.
• Thursday, November 9, 2023, from 4:30pm to 5:30pm, "Between Saying and Signing... the Sea" in collaboration with Olga Capirci from the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies CNR-LaCAM. Online event via Zoom.
• Thursday, November 23, 2023, from 4:30pm to 5:30pm, "In the Sign: Technology and Related Landscapes" in collaboration with artist Giulia Bruno. Online event via Zoom.

All activities are completely free, but registration is required. Further information will be provided via email.