Following the Pathways of Plastic Litter - An international Citizen Science project for promoting K12 students' scientific literacy

In the Citizen Science project "Tracking Plastic Waste", students and their teachers were involved in a scientific study to collect waste data at German and Chilean beaches. On the one hand, the project generated scientific data, on the other hand it helped the participants to understand the scientific process and anticipated a reflection on their own actions. Guided by a companion book, the students dealt with important scientific basics of marine litter, which was required during the subsequent sampling on the beach and the evaluation of the data. Since the project was carried out simultaneously in Germany and Chile, the participants were able to share their research on a project website and thus gain an insight into the characteristics of the partner country.