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UNESCO
Community Sandwatch Competition
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Operation:
Love your beach
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Share
our care - be aware
Footprints in the
sand
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An
inter-regional Sandwatch competition was launched in September
2004, open to primary and secondary school students from schools
involved in the Sandwatch Project in Caribbean, Indian Ocean and
Pacific countries. This competition, entitled 'UNESCO Community
Sandwatch Competition', ran from 15 September 2004 to 1 May 2005.
Substantial cash prizes were offered and schools had to submit
entry forms by 30
November 2004. The objective of the competition was for students
to plan, design, implement and evaluate a community-based beach
enhancement project using the scientific beach monitoring methods
that are an integral part of the Sandwatch project. For more information,
see Announcement 1
and the competition
guidelines.
The
competition closed in May 2005. Thirty entries were received from
the following islands: Bahamas, Barbados, Cook Islands, Cuba,
Dominican Republic, San Andres Archipelago (Colombia), St. Kitts
and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. All the
entries were reviewed by a team of judges in June and July. The
judging panel noted that the standard of the entries was very
high. Prizes were awarded in September 2005 to the winning
entries in the primary and secondary school categories; awards
were also given for special effort and originality.
Click
here to see a
summary of each entry and to read some of the reports in full.
The entries were inspiring and illustrate ways in which Sandwatch
has become integrated across school curricula. They provide many
different examples of 'education for sustainable development in
action' ranging from a Cuban
school which focused on enhancing the understanding of construction
workers at a beachfront hotel about caring for the beach environment,
to a school in St.
Vincent and the Grenadines which restored a degraded coastal
area and ensured the local community adopt their project, thereby
providing for continuation after the competition. Schools in The
Bahamas and Cook
Islands demonstrated perseverance and ingenuity when their
beaches were destroyed by hurricanes/cyclones. Sandwatch is an
activity in which students with special needs, such as autism,
can get involved, as shown by a Cuban
entry.
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