Page 108 - Livre_MOW2024_EN

106 | INSPIRE YOUTH

ADOPT A FLOAT
Secondary school

students discover

oceanography

Students from local secondary school Collège Charles III have adopted
a profiling float that patrols the Atlantic Ocean collecting scientific data.
This outreach programme run by Villefranche Oceanography Laboratory

brings marine science right into the classroom.

The profiling float nicknamed ‘College-CharlesIII-
MC’ was adopted by a class of first years at Collège
Charles III secondary school in Monaco. Using an
interactive map, the budding scientists can track
the float’s progress in real time as it drifts hundreds
of kilometers away, off the Spanish coast. Since its
launch on 14 June 2023, ‘College-CharlesIII-MC’ has
been drifting around the Atlantic Ocean measuring
water temperature, salinity, oxygen concentrations,
chlorophyll and suspended particles.

It is part of a fleet of underwater robots deployed
by international research programmes to monitor
the global ocean. Using miniature sensors, they
take a variety of measurements and send them to
a database in real time, providing valuable data for
ocean scientists. As well as being a vital tool for
scientific observation, these floats are a modern
educational tool that give classrooms a direct window
into ocean science.

On Tuesday 19 March, the students took part
in an ocean science workshop led by Manon
Audax, Science Outreach Officer at Villefranche
Oceanography Laboratory (LOV), giving them first-
hand experience of the energy of Monaco Ocean
Week. The aim of the session was for the pupils to
understand the mechanisms driving ocean currents
and how they influence our lives.