Paper short abstract:

The Future Maore Reef project on which this paper will focus, aims, at enabling pupils from two elementary schools, one from Mayotte island (Indian ocean) and the other from Bondy (mainland France), to become aware of problems linked to climate change and to be actors in coral reef protection.

Paper long abstract:

In Education and Sociology, Durkheim (1922) argued that children are born into a given society that pre-exists them and to which they must adapt, by means of knowledge and education provided within the schools. Today, climate change issues are on the agenda of governments and international institutions alike Cop 21, UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, etc. and are one of the major challenges of our time. Under these conditions, and knowing that science subjects are not the most taught disciplines in French primary schools (and not only) (Philippot and Baillat, 2009), the following question arises: How can primary school pupils be made actively and knowledgeably aware of the impact of climate change?

The Future Maore Reef project on which this paper will focus, aims, at enable pupils from two elementary schools from Mayotte island (Indian ocean) and Bondy (mainland France) to become aware of the problems linked to climate change and be themselves actors of scientific practices through activities linked to a better knowledge of corals and cutting techniques. In both cases, the pupils in these schools, whether they are close to the sea (those in Mayotte) or far from it (those in Bondy), are encouraged to do science with the scientists involved in the project, and to "get their hands dirty" (Charpak, 2011).