Bringing kelp forests into the classroom through AR/VR app

How do you make children who have never (and might never) see the ocean, fall in love with it?

At Kelp Forest Foundation we aim to bring the ocean and its ecosystems such as kelp forests into the classrooms.

We will do this in a beautiful and interactive manner through a virtual reality app and an augmented reality experience which can be beamed to the classroom via a phone. This will be tailor-made for each country by using local footage showing local biodiversity and nearby coastal features so is globally applicable. The immersive experience will enable students to dive with mobile devices, explore habitats by moving around and learn by interacting with educational content. Students will feel what it is like to be underwater, swimming virtually in marine ecosystems and learning interactively about the fauna and flora in them and even the effect of climate change and human activity on marine environments.

By creating an interactive augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) experience we want to teach children about how the ocean at their doorstep affects their lives and how their own actions in turn might affect it. We want to use AR/VR to take them to places they might never go to, and yet feel connected to the ocean. Kelp forests are not only understudied ecosystems but can only be visited by those can swim and dive. The teachers will be able to use this virtual reality and visualisation app for rendering and immersing their student in ocean ecosystems.

The app will both excite and engage audiences and help them visualise interpretative concepts that are otherwise impossible to communicate. It will help to increase not only ocean literacy but also environmental literacy by impacting behaviour, motivation and empathy in the classroom.

Initial target audience: Namibian children and youth

Namibia has a coastline of 1572 km stretching along the South-East Atlantic and its territorial waters are approximately two-thirds the size of its land territory. This African country had an estimated population of approximately 2.5 million in 2020 but only around 9% of the population, an estimated 220,000 inhabitants, live on the coast. Namibia's coastline is largely remote and in most parts uninhabited. Its marine territory is far from the country's capital

Windhoek from where it is administered, and distant to the majority of the population, which mainly resides inland and, to a large extent, cannot afford to travel to the coast. Many Namibians have never seen the sea and the majority do not know how to swim. Moreover, some of the more than ten languages indigenous to Namibia even lack a term for ocean or coast.

The Kelp Forest Foundation’s ambition is to connect Namibian children and youth to the ocean despite their existing geographic and/or financial limitations. We want to bring the ocean and its marine inhabitants alive in the classrooms to create the next generation of ocean lovers. We believe that there should be open access to the ocean so that everyone can appreciate its marvels such as kelp forests and learn about the severe threats of climate change and human impact to these ecosystems. So how do we break the knowledge and awareness barrier between Namibians and their ocean?

The Kelp Forest Foundation is undertaking academic research, ocean education and capacity building in Namibia. It was set up by Kelp Blue, a commercial company growing giant kelp forests offshore and at scale with the aim of sequestering CO2, re-wilding the oceans and producing kelp-based nature-friendly products. The foundation is focused on independently researching the ecosystem services of kelp forests e.g. impact on biodiversity, quantifying the CO2 sequestration potential of cultivated giant kelp forests and the avoided emissions of kelp-based products. We have issued 4 scholarships to Namibian students and work closely with the Namibian Universities.

We are specialists in giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) and would love to raise awareness about their importance and their ecological benefits both for wild as cultivated once. They are some of the most productive ecosystems on the planet and some of the most beautiful ones. We would like this awareness to be accessible to all, not just those who are lucky enough to swim in them.

My name is Samantha Deane and I am the managing director of the Kelp Forest Foundation. Our foundation focuses mostly on research but we also work on ocean education in Namibia as well as global awareness of the ecological benefits of kelp forests. They vast majority (91%) of people in Namibia do not live on the coast and I dare say that the majority do not not how to swim. We are creating tidal pools and give swimming classes to some but we want to reach more people not just a few. 

We want kids to fall in love with the ocean, and not be afraid or indifferent to it. The ocean and their ecosystems are beautiful but unless you are a diver or a snorkeler you will never enjoy this beauty or experience the benefit of swimming in it. So as the ancient proverb goes "if Mohammed cannot go to the mountain, let's bring the mountain to Mohammed". Let's bring the ocean into the classrooms in an equitable and interactive way. In a way that is modern, exciting and creates a learning experience. One which will lead to children loving, understanding and empathising with the issues of the ocean, from plastic pollution to increased acidification. 

I run the foundation on my own with the help of my impressive board. So I need firepower - AR/VR specialists, divers, gamers, educators, and of course funding. The idea is to make the application as simple as one that can be beamed from a phone in a small classroom in Namibia but can also additionally be made for a museum, aquarium or travelling experience in the future. Everybody needs to fall in love with the ocean so that we can learn to respect and cherish it.

My idea is not for sale, it is to give away. It inclusive, equitable and impactful. SDG 14 - life under water, is the least focused and invested in of all the SDG's. This solution creates awareness of the beauty of life under water. Only if we love it will we care for it.

AR/VR is a new frontier in education. One which makes explaining difficult concepts such as climate change and water acidification easier to comprehend. It also brings a level playing field to those who might never have the opportunity to cover the ocean, that incredible body of water which covers 70% of the planet and give us half the oxygen we breathe.

If we create the next generation of ocean lovers they will be the ones focusing on not polluting it with plastics and chemicals since they will have learnt how what we do on land impacts life in the ocean and without the ocean there is no life on this planet.

Our impact goals are to:

* make the youth fall in love with the ocean - they will then want to be its custodian

* make them understand the cause and effect of topics such as plastic and chemical pollution, climate change, acidification, excess CO2 on the ocean

* bring awareness of the ecological and planetary benefits of ecosystems such as kelp forests which will want to conserve and restore them

* create a level playing field in knowledge and experience around ocean ecosystems for children who might never have the chance to enjoy them

* increase ocean-education

This app will not only target SDG14 - Life under water but also SDG 4 - Quality Education, SDG10 - Reduced Inequalities and indirectly SDG13 - Climate Action.

The progress will be measured by how many children use and experience the app especially in least developed or landlocked countries, starting of in Namibia.

Many children in Namibia do not no how to swim and/or have never seen the ocean. How can they empathise then with the issues affecting the ocean and understand that it has a direct effect on their lives? 

Bring the ocean to the classrooms, elevate knowledge and understanding of the issues and the cause and effect of actions such as throwing plastic in the ocean, empower them by making them understand that they can make a difference, inspire them to want to change any damaging habits, educate them so that they want to educate others.

Once they fall in love with the ocean, even virtually, it might inspire later in life to want to study scientific topics around the ocean or change policies to protect it or stop damaging activities or industries that will negatively affect the ocean and its inhabitants. It you love rather than fear the ocean you will want to protect it. The more children who have access to this app the stronger the impact but every single children moved by this new found knowledge of the ocean will be an impact in itself.

The technology is Augmented/Virtual Reality a cardboard box for beaming and an iphone 7 or better. This needs to be combined with interactive learning, 3D underwater filming of giant kelp forests.

This is a female-led foundation.

We are inclusive, we cherish diversity and strive for human and ecological equity.

We do not have a business model since this will be shared for free.

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We will be wholly dependant on grants