CONTEXT
“CresceRio” is a project run by MARE – Centre for Marine and Environmental Sciences, in partnership with Marionet. Launched in 2018 as a pilot project, the success of its implementation has led to its continuation in subsequent years. Its aim is to bring the school community (students, teachers, assistants, families) closer to the aquatic ecosystems present in the city of Coimbra, highlighting the importance of streams in the proper functioning of the city, as well as the importance of preserving them.
Children are the target group for this work. Through field trips to streams in the Coimbra area, laboratory visits and the staging of a final show, the pupils are involved in a pedagogical contact with nature that in many cases would not exist. This initiative raises awareness of issues related to ecology and civic development, but the children are also involved in this process artistically, so they can creatively express all the knowledge they have acquired.
PILOT PROJECT
The initial project, which began with a class from Solum Primary School, included a series of objectives that were maintained throughout the following editions:
– to introduce the school community to riverside ecosystems;
– promote children’s contact with nature;
– to publicise the biodiversity of urban streams and the causes of their degradation;
– encourage contact with scientific activities related to the ecological assessment of rivers;
– develop social responsibility for the preservation and restoration of urban rivers and their ecosystems on the part of the school community.
FIELD TRIPS / LABORATORY CLASSES
A fundamental aspect of this project is the field trips. Together with MARE’s research group, the students begin by collecting samples of water and vegetation found in the riparian corridors of the various urban streams visited. In a second phase, the class analyses the samples collected in the laboratory under the supervision of the research team, allowing them to compare the properties of the water in order to understand whether or not it is healthy.
1st EDITION
After the aforementioned work of visiting, collecting and analysing, in which the class was involved between 2019 and 2022, the process culminated in the creation of a show.
RIVER STORIES (Show)
The first moments of creation took the form of conversations with the children about the importance of the theme that the class had been developing for three years, as well as their opinions on the theatre production and the characters they would like to play. Based on the results of these conversations and the information obtained, the Marionet team wrote the script and coordinated the rehearsals.
In the final year of the project, the class was asked to think about the whole experience and create a show based on this premise. “River Stories” tackled themes that the group of children had identified as central during their journey of discovering and analysing urban rivers and their ecosystems.
The premiere took place on 30 June 2022 and the show took the form of a set of six short stories focusing on the importance of aquatic ecosystems in urban environments and strategies for preserving them. Due to the huge turnout, the show was restaged in two more sessions, both on 24 September 2022.
2nd EDITION
Maintaining its social and artistic relevance, this project continued in the 2019/20 school year, joined by 4th year students from the EB1 Solum Sul school. They had the opportunity to acquire knowledge about the ecosystems that surround us and deepen it through the creation of an artistic object. As in previous years, the activities included field trips, talks and rehearsals, culminating in a new show.
THE LIVES OF THE RIVER (Show)
“Lives in the River” was a theatre production about urban rivers and their ecosystems, which took a look at people’s relationship with rivers and what they contain that is invisible to us. In the stories that make up the play, we discover the meaning of words that seem invented, a fisherman who doesn’t know where to sit, a gathering of disgruntled aquatic tenants, friends of the heart with a keen appetite and invertebrates who aren’t satisfied with the life they lead. And the humans? They say they want to enjoy it, but they end up destroying it.
3rd EDITION
The project will continue in the 2023/24 school year, this time with children from the São Martinho do Bispo Primary School, accompanying them for four school years, thus extending until 2026/27. In 2024 there were two field trips: the first, on 11 April 2024, visited the stream located in the natural surroundings of the sanctuary of Nossa Senhora da Piedade de Tábuas, in the parish of Vila Nova, in Miranda do Corvo, and the second went to Escravote Park, in Casais de Eiras.
