This Friday, 6th December, the Minister of the Sea Ricardo Serrão Santos, delivered the Mário Ruivo Prize to Santa Maria Elementary and Secondary School. The prize was created by the Ministry of the Sea, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture and aims to challenge the schools to demonstrate the importance of the Ocean to human life. The film “O Mar Que Há em Nós”, made by a group of students from Santa Maria Elementary and Secondary School, stood out from the 43 films and won the 1st prize.

Santa Maria Elementary and Secondary School will be officially distinguished as a Blue School, for its participation in the Educational Passages PT project. The Blue School programme, in partnership with ISR-Lisboa, rewards and guides Portuguese schools that are developing Ocean theme related projects. In total, there are more than 160 Blue Schools across the country, involving over 21,000 students.

The school now embraces an educational project around the Dutch boat “Maurick”. This unmanned boat was launched in the United States and arrived at Santa Maria Island after 640 days in the Atlantic. Equipped with a GPS and a satellite transmitter, Maurick was monitored by Dutch students. Now, the boat will be officially delivered to Santa Maria Elementary and Secondary School and will return once again to the Ocean with the support of ISR-Lisboa.

Luís Sebastião, ISR-Lisboa researcher, attended the award ceremony.