Graphic Design students helped a world renowned environmental research organisation with a fascinating project recently.
A total of 23 Forth Valley College students worked on the ‘Sea to Shore’ initiative and helped the Schmidt Ocean Institute and their scientific studies on board the ‘Falkor’ research ship with their recent project - 'Unravelling Ancient Sea Level Secrets' off the coast of Hawaii.
FVC Creative Industries Lecturers at Forth Valley College’s Stirling Campus were delighted to link up with former colleague Natasha Russell – who had previously worked as the college’s print-making operations technician – now the Artist at sea programme on board the Falkor.
After receiving their brief from the ship via ship to shore video link in September, the HND first and second year students’ imaginations flourished and creative juices began to flow, as they set to work on their four-day challenge. They were tasked with developing educational and awareness raising posters, collages, t-shirts and films relating to the decline of the coral reefs around the Hawaiian islands, as a result of the rise in sea levels.
Logan Mock-Bunting an Outreach Specialist for The Schmidt Ocean Institute - a private non-profit operating foundation established to advance oceanographic research, discovery, and knowledge, and catalyse sharing of information about the oceans – was only too happy to assist the FVC students in their project.
He said: “Personally, I deeply enjoyed being part of this project - the students were interested and a pleasure to talk with. From an organisational stand-point, it really fits many of the key aspects Schmidt Ocean Institute is striving for. Our motto is “Innovate, Explore, Share” and we touched on all three with this experience. We used technology in an innovative way to communicate with students via satellite over internet video, discussing a scientific expedition that was exploring places no human eyes had ever seen, and then the students used their unique talents to share the science produced with simply marvellous results. We loved the final products and hope the students learned something interesting and useful.”
Creative Industries Lecturer Hannah Keba, said: “I was absolutely delighted with the work produced by the students involved. This project was a great opportunity for them and they really engaged with it.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to work with Natasha Russell, and for help and support from Logan Mock-Bunting and the Schmidt Institute. The students worked on this project for a short, intense period, many have made use of imagery and video available on the Schmidt Ocean Institute website and social media and it was a great experience for them.”
Jenny McGibbon (23) from Balfron, said: “Our group created a film using footage the Schmidt Institute had already put up on YouTube. It was great to work with the first years and do something different that I had not done before and I now want to do more film editing. It is really interesting what the Institute are doing and it was great to be involved.”
Jessica Gray (20) from Alloa, said: “The group I was on produced a set of posters using photographs and lino printing that would raise awareness of the sea level rise around Hawaii. It was definitely fun and enjoyable and good to meet new people and learn new styles.”
Olivia Baird (20) from Bo’ness, said: “I liked the fact we only had a short period of time – four days – to complete the project as I think that encouraged creativity and was more like a work based scenario. We worked on a collage and we were really happy with the result. It was nice to do something a bit different and I would recommend new students to get involved in projects like this in the future.”
Erasmus Student Aaricia Wiesen (20) from the Helha College in Mons, said: “This project was a great way to get to know my classmates. The fact that it was a real project was really good and this is much more practical than projects we would work on back in Belgium.”
For more information on the project visit https://hannahkeba.wixsite.com/seatoshore or www.schmidtocean.org.
To find out more about FVC’s Creative Industries courses at the Stirling Campus please visit www.forthvalley.ac.uk or call 01324 403125.
Photographs courtesy of Schmidt Ocean Institute. The photo of students at FVC’s Stirling Campus taken by Alex Johnson.
