Outreach & Ocean Literacy
Ocean knowledge is for everyone and the Ocean Frontier Institute is building programs that educate and train the next generation of ocean stewards.
From elementary school students to graduate students and early career researchers, the Ocean Frontier Institute creates programs that build the next generation of ocean leaders.
A program of the Ocean Frontier Institute in partnership with the National Film Board of Canada, Ocean School is a leading ocean literacy educational tool in Canada. It is a free educational experience that uses powerful storytelling techniques, immersive technologies, interactive media, and an inquiry-based learning model to advance environmental awareness and ocean literacy.
Aligned with curriculum, it teaches STEM concepts through an oceans lens. It helps build critical thinking and problem-solving skills and is creating the next generation of ocean stewards and environmental actors.
Ocean School brings the Ocean Frontier Institute’s research into homes and classrooms across Canada and internationally. It transports students to the depths of the ocean in a virtual underwater submarine excursion, brings learners to coastal communities to learn about sustainable fishing practices and builds awareness about the vast potential the ocean has to offer.
Ambassadors will promote and shape the Ocean Frontier Institute’s future direction, engage with other leaders, and mentor early-career OFI researchers. They will be chosen not only for their experience and reputation, but their ability to explain research in plain language. The program offers a way to recognize distinguished ocean researchers for their scientific contributions to OFI through formal long-term association.
Dr. Boris Worm was appointed the inaugural Ambassador role in September 2020 as the OFI Ambassador for Ocean Literacy. Dr. Worm, marine ecologist and Killam Research Professor at Dalhousie University will actively promote ocean literacy and the sharing of ocean knowledge through various programs such as Ocean School and the mentorship of youth ambassadors.
Coastal community livelihoods depend on the sustained health of the ocean. At the core of the Ocean Frontier Institute's mission is a commitment to engage with coastal communities to better understand how changing ocean dynamics impact their communities and how solutions can be co-created to improve social and economic conditions.
Through the Institute’s Large Research Projects, coastal communities actively engage with the Institute's researchers to explore the many challenges and opportunities these ocean changes present.
Dalhousie University operates in the unceded territories of the Mi’kmaw, Wolastoqey, and Peskotomuhkati Peoples. These sovereign nations hold inherent rights as the original peoples of these lands, and we each carry collective obligations under the Peace and Friendship Treaties. Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 recognizes and affirms Aboriginal and Treaty rights in Canada.
We acknowledge that the lands on which Memorial University’s campuses are situated are in the traditional territories of diverse Indigenous groups, and we acknowledge with respect the diverse histories and cultures of the Beothuk, Mi’kmaq, Innu, and Inuit of this province.
