CLEAR regularly develops technologies and protocols for everyday people (“citizen scientists”) to monitor local marine plastic pollution. Our projects include protocols for studying plastics on the surface of the water with two plastic trawls (technologies are: Ice Cream Scoop and BabyLegs), and for monitoring plastics along shorelines and on land (protocol for Land Survey).

We’ve partnered with Let’s Talk Science to create guides on how to build and use these devices in classrooms from grade 7-12, along with a participation and curriculum alignment guide so teachers can integrate the projects into Newfoundland and Labrador curriculum requirements. Kits containing materials to build the technologies, along with “how to” guides have been distributed to teachers and schools across Newfoundland and Labrador. In its pilot year, these kits have already been distributed to 17 different schools in various regions of the province. 

For more information about this project, or how to bring this project into your classroom, visit our page on Monitoring Marine Plastics at Let’s Talk Science.