NCUE has held several planned activities to maintain and expand existing plant and animal ecosystems and their biodiversity, especially threatened ecosystems. NCUE includes the Environmental Education Centre’s “Beautiful and Treasured Clams in Fangyuan and Dacheng: Sustainable Industry and Environment Project of Changhua’s Two Cities Amid Climate Change” and “24-hour, 100-hour courses for certification of environmental education personnel”, Department of Biology’s “Changhua Coastal Hard Clam Habitat Survey and Conservation Education Promotion Project”. They will be discussed in detail below:

1. “Beautiful and Treasured Clams in Fangyuan and Dacheng: Sustainable Industry and Environment Project of Changhua’s Two Cities Amid Climate Change”, “Changhua Coastal hard clams Habitat Survey and Conservation Education Promotion Program”:

Under these projects, the University offered the courses “Coastal Biological Resources” and “Sustainable Development and Practices of Coastal Biological Resources,” which integrate theories and practices. The curricula covered coastal biodiversity, eco-friendly aquaculture techniques, water and sediment quality testing, fish consumption culture, and the promotion of low-carbon aquaculture. In collaboration with local communities, the courses also advanced marine conservation and sustainable fisheries. In the same year, NCUE carried out the industry–academia collaboration project “Changhua Coastal Hard Clam Habitat Survey and Conservation Education Promotion Project,” conducting a series of marine citizen science courses at Xinbao Wetland and Wanggong Fishing Harbor. Activities included:

(1) Habitat surveys of hard clams (winter, spring, summer, and autumn; four sessions in total, including sediment improvement trials)

(2) Volunteer training for habitat surveys (4 sessions, 41 participants)

(3) “Seed Teacher Training” (3 sessions, 91 participants)

(4) “Little Clam Detectives” educational activities (4 sessions, 185 participants)

The training and practical sessions encompassed water quality testing, biodiversity surveys, bivalve classification, coastal tourism, and conservation education promotion. NCUE also collapsed with Cao-Hu Junior High School, Hanbao Elementary School, and Lukang Elementary School to integrate scientific investigation with local education. Project results show that sediment improvement effectively promotes the growth of coarse-sediment indicator species such as hard clams and corbicula, suppresses the dominance of ring clams, and enhances carbon sequestration potential and benthic biodiversity. In addition, the participation of citizen scientist also effectively increases survey data and strengthens community water resource safety and conservation awareness, successfully establishing a demonstration model that combines scientific research with educational promotion. Activities photos are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. In winter, the NCUE team, in collaboration with the Changhua Marine Food Research Center, conducted sampling and surveys of hard clam habitats.

Project FB Page Link: https://www.facebook.com/NCUEUSR/

2. 24-Hour, 100-Hour Courses for Environmental Education Personnel Certification

The Environmental Education Center’s duty is to nurture environmental education talents. In conjunction with the project “Beautiful and Treasured Clams in Fangyuan and Dacheng: Sustainable Industry and Environment Project of Changhua’s Two Cities Amid Climate Change” project, EEC provided relevant education courses for the local and nationwide communities from July to October 2024, with the details shown in Table 1 and the activities shown in Figure 2-3:

Table 1. Environmental education course activities

Figure 2. NCUS’s Specialized Program for Environmental Education Personnel

Figure 3. Environmental Education Personnel 100-Hour Program

Course activities Information Link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1080081833905178&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1082290977017597&type=3