Coasts for Kids results from of a transdisciplinary team effort, co-ordinated by Irene Delgado-Fernandez (Edge Hill University). Project resources are co-created by children, their families, teachers, artists, and coastal scientists. C4K was established in partnership with Sefton Council and the Southport Eco Centre (UK). Contributors include universities in the UK, Canada, Australia, Spain, France, and Mexico.
Core to the project are our KS2 videos, produced collaboratively with primary school pupils aged 6-8 from the Liverpool City Region. The creativity of children and their families were integral to the development of materials through production of audio content for the animations, and particularly in adding wonderful expressions to the narrations. All voice-overs were recorded by parents and children, in their homes during the 2020 Covid pandemic, supported remotely by the project leader.
The science behind these videos (content, structure, and initial scripts) was put together by a team of scientists (coastal geomorphologists, ecologists, geographers), and coastal managers. The team worked in close collaboration with teachers and community artists, who carefully crafted the scripts, and refined the language to what you see today. Our illustrator, Sion Morris, created cartoons tailored to school kids, and the project co-ordinator edited final video outputs.
Additional to the video library, the team continues to be involved in the creative development of further resources and interactive learning (e.g., games, quizzes, artwork/activities). All educational resources are freely available and can be downloaded for use in classroom settings or at home.
C4K aims to empower kids (and adults) to understand more of the complex interactions which regulate coastal dynamics throughout a variety of temporal and spatial scales. A key goal of the project is to trigger both interest and active engagement with our coasts from an early age.