Maria Alexandra Abreu Lima wins the 2nd edition of the Ana Maria Vieira de Almeida Prize
Researcher Maria Alexandra Abreu Lima from MARE-ARNET & INIAV, I.P. was the winner of the 2nd edition of the Ana Maria Vieira de Almeida Prize. This Award, established by the Vasco Vieira de Almeida Foundation with the support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, is held every two years and aims to celebrate the memory of Ana Maria Vieira de Almeida, valuing scientific work and research that promotes innovative models in the areas of Early Childhood, Pre-Primary and Primary Education. 
The Award Ceremony took place on June 2 in Lisbon and was also attended by MARE researcher Lia Vasconcelos, as well as members of some Institutes and Municipalities from the school communities involved in the project. In this edition, Maria Alexandra Abreu Lima's prize-winning work was “Reflections on the teaching of Botany in Primary School based on the Emc2 Project ‘Exploring Camarinha da Costa Woodlands’”.
This award recognizes the value of the Emc2 (MARE-ARNET) project's methodology and with it comes an increased responsibility to continue its activities with motivation and to promote more educational initiatives based on a connection to nature. This creates in students a sense of place and an emotional involvement that are an essential part of meaningful learning in childhood.
In today's context, where there are growing trends of ‘young people's alienation from nature’ and a ‘decline in the teaching of botany’, this Award, which keeps alive the legacy of pedagogue Ana Maria Vieira de Almeida, in which education is ‘the most lasting, strongest and most determined way to change societies’, is an incentive to transform the teaching of plants in elementary school. In it, we must be able to awaken in young people a passion for natural values, so that they can better understand and protect them, enabling them to act in favor of biodiversity, in the midst of the United Nations Decade for the Recovery of Ecosystems (2021-2030).
The Emc2 project is funded by FCT Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., through: UID/04292/MARE-Center for Marine and Environmental Sciences and LA/P/0069/2020 (https://doi.org/10.54499/LA/P/0069/2020) awarded to the Associated Laboratory ARNET - Aquatic Research Network.
The book can be accessed HERE
Text by Maria Alexandra Abreu Lima