This project is student-centred in its design and implementation. A central project strategy is training participating students in basic scientific observations and measurement, providing data which can then be analysed using mathematical, computing, and language skills. This training is provided in the context of environmental management and sustainable development, as the students use the information in the implementation of projects to help solve specific environmental problems. The students are asked to involve their parents and communities in their projects in an effort to increase environmental awareness through action-oriented activities.

The project began in 2001 with a 3-day workshop during which teachers from participating territories were given hands-on training in simple beach monitoring techniques; they were also provided with manuals and equipment. Upon return to their territories, these trained other teachers and students. Scientific organizations at the national level, as well as COSALC counterpart agencies, provided students with advice and assistance where needed.

Then students at the participating schools engaged in field activities. Each school or group selected a beach near their school; students then visited the beach at least once per month to collect data. Specific activities included describing and photographing the beach, measuring beach debris and water quality, recording human activities and physical changes on the beach (such as the amount of erosion or accretion), collecting sand samples, measuring and recording wave characteristics and nearshore currents, observing turtle nesting activity, and recording plants. Graphs, histograms, pie charts, and statistics were prepared in the classroom to show changes at the particular beach and to identify its major problems.

In July 2003, a workshop was held in Dominica at which students presented the results of their beach monitoring work through oral presentations and exhibits. Invited representatives from Seychelles, Palau, and Cooks Islands acted as judges of the presentations. Participating students exhibited their beach monitoring work, visited a nature reserve, and planted trees. On the final day of the workshop, participants displayed and had the chance to explain the symbolism of their national flags.

Following this workshop, an international Community Sandwatch competition was launched in 2004. Students began working with their communities to implement a project to address one or more of the beach management problems they identified. Thirty entries were received from schools in the Caribbean and Pacific regions. First prize in the primary school section went to the Cook Islands for their project on landscaping, recycling and promoting awareness among beach users. In the secondary school section, first prize went to St. Lucia for their project on addressing the pollution reaching the beach from a nearby river. Click here to access a timeline of milestone workshops and events (with links to more detailed information about each), including the November 2006 Regional Sandwatch Fair to be held in Trinidad. The latter event is designed to provide a platform to showcase and expand the Sandwatch approach within Trinidad & Tobago and the wider Caribbean Region; to facilitate the sharing of scientific skills, knowledge, and attitudes among students; and to promote a culture of peace through regional learning and exchange, thereby hopefully creating greater awareness of conservation strategies for the coastal environment.

In April 2006, the project launched an interactive Sandwatch website that is designed to encourage participants to become involved in the programme and build a sense of community within all Sandwatch partners. The site features an online forum where participants can communicate with each other and where teachers can post questions or information - writing in with suggestions, ideas, responses and expressions of interest. In addition to providing free access to all project publications, the site includes a page listing all participating countries, with dedicated "national pages" for each country that detail Sandwatch activities and events in each; Sandwatchers are encouraged to view and customise their own national pages by submitting suitable photos, data, student artwork, midi-music files, and short video clips. Click here to access this information.

In June 2006, the project launched the first issue of “The Sandwatcher”, a regular newsletter designed to highlight and inform Sandwatch participants worldwide of items of mutual interest to the project and related subjects. This publication shares specific country experiences, as well as project-wide initiatives/developments such as an invitation for Sandwatch students to participate in Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ambassadors of the Environment Project by helping develop and test a new environmental teaching tool (a CD containing a multimedia PowerPoint presentation that students can customise themselves to highlight both good and bad things about their local environments, such as by adding photos of destruction of mangroves, or students doing beach clean-up).

Children, Youth, Environment.

UNESCO Associated Schools Project Network (ASPnet) is a global network of schools who work in support of quality education in practice. COSALC is jointly sponsored by UNESCO's Environment and Development in Coastal Regions and in Small Islands and by the University of Puerto Rico Sea Grant College Program. COSALC is a regional project that seeks to develop in-country capabilities so that island states can measure, assess, and manage their beach resources within an overall framework of integrated coastal management. The idea for a Sandwatch project emerged during an ASPnet workshop held in Tobago in July 1998.