The Innovative Marine Education Lesson Plan Competition 2019 was organized by the Taiwan Marine Education Center under the commission of the K-12 Educational Administration of the Ministry of Education. The competition received submissions for lesson plans in marine education between July and September 2019, in the categories of primary, junior high, and senior secondary/vocational schools respectively. The lesson plans underwent preliminary, semi-final and final rounds of evaluation by various judges. After careful deliberation, the best works were selected to receive Merit, Distinction and High Distinction awards.  In total, 18 teams from the primary school category, 9 teams from the junior high school category, and 7 teams from the senior secondary/vocational school category were selected to receive the awards. The award ceremony was held on October 18, 2019 at Pei Ying Junior High School, in conjunction with the award ceremony for The Selection of Marine Education Achievements across Special Municipalities, Counties and Cities in 2018. Educators from all over Taiwan attending the National Marine Education Achievements Exhibition also partook in the celebrations.

        The participating teams displayed excellent efforts in interweaving marine elements into their lesson plans. The plans had also tapped into natural resources near the school to highlight the distinctive features of local marine environment. The call for lesson plans focusing on the single theme of marine education has yielded innovative content that could be part of a wider, school-based curriculum. The diverse teaching methods developed could also stimulate the curiosity of the students and their independent thinking abilities. Though exploratory and experiential learning, the lessons seek to help students overcome their fear of oceans and gain a deeper understanding of the rich ocean resources. These would help to make the mysterious underwater world less intimidating and more accessible to human beings. At the same time, these lessons would help to equip youths with ocean literacy. It is hoped that marine education would be promoted to all corners of the world.

        Teams representing Tainan Municipal Simen Experimental Elementary School, Kaohsiung Municipal Cijin Junior School and New Taipei Municipal Hsin Tien Senior High School were among those receiving the High Distinction awards at the ceremony. They were invited to speak about their experiences and long-term commitment to promoting marine education. The sharing of teaching experiences would hopefully spark greater creativity and more diverse and enriching possibilities for marine education.

Link to Distinction and High Distinction Lesson Plans: http://tmec.ntou.edu.tw/p/412-1016-6671.php?Lang=zh-tw