This term, Laura has been working on the Octopus Medicine project delivering STEM workshops alongside Marine Researchers from the University of Portsmouth’s Revolution Plastics, the researchers inspired young people to consider three different areas of marine pollution that affects the Solent; noise pollution, chemical pollution and micro plastics pollution.

In the planning stage, Laura got to take Edith to the Marine Labs and view some micro plastics samples. Hows that for STEM capital?

“Octopus Story is a large-scale immersive audio-visual installation, theatre performance, community workshops and creative maker activities running through 2022 in Portsmouth on the south coast of the UK.”

During the delivery of the sessions, students faces lit up with excitement, they asked incredible questions. One researcher heard students at Meon Juniors debating about whether or not they should melt down the plastics to repurpose them, the other students argued that the carbon dioxide released from the process of heating the plastics would also impact the environment. They were in year 4, the year 4 and 5 students across Solent Juniors, Flying Bull and Westover Primary school were also incredible, their ideas about how to prevent and reduce these types of pollution were innovative and creative.

If you’d like to hear, see and experience their ideas and artist interpretations of these experiences then head to St Marys Church, Fratton on Wednesday 8th June 2022 to celebrate World Ocean’s Day 2022.

Thanks to Roni at Pamodzi Creatives for including us and leading on this project, thank you to Bidemi, Stephanie and Laura from Revolution Plastics for planning and delivering inspiration STEM workshops to Portsmouth students, your impact is far reaching and long lasting.