Eco Showboat Expedition 2021
Year Awarded
2020
Amount
€49,510
- Organisation:School of Looking
- Audience:Primary Students, Parents, General Public
- Location:Cavan, Clare, Galway, Leitrim, Limerick, Offaly, Roscommon, Tipperary, national
Project Summary
The Eco Showboat is a floating environmental science laboratory and art studio, bringing communities, scientists and artists together across Ireland to observe, draw, photograph and film fresh water biodiversity through workshops at the waterside – raising awareness of our precious fresh water resources, sparking conversations on how society benefits from waterways and the challenges we are facing to protect them.
The project is inspired by Irish historical scientists Mary Ward and John Tyndall, who used drawing of nature to popularise science among non-specialist audiences.
This ecological vessel, completely sustainable in energy, will tour the inland waterways documenting biodiversity in the littoral, riparian and photic zones of the waterways with communities, exhibiting these through partnering organisations, sharing sightings with the National Biodiversity Data Centre in County Waterford through the Citizen Science Portal, and encouraging communities to do so too.
The project supports STEM learning widely, engaging with biology and the environmental sciences as well as developing skills and opening up career pathways.
The Eco Showboat will travel on the waterways for two years. This award will support delivery of STE(A)M workshops during the first year in counties along the Shannon and the Grand Canal.
The project is led by School of Looking. The venue is a heritage barge from Waterways Ireland, renovated through a grant from DCC Water Framework Directive, powered by renewable energy, and fitted out with laboratory equipment from LAWPRO. The project is supported by organisations countrywide: local authorities, research centres, universities, and environmental agencies.