Speaker
Description
Nature contact is beneficial for children, positively influencing well-being and nature connectedness. At the same time, citizen science is increasingly used to support biodiversity monitoring across large spatial and temporal scales. Schoolyards represent a promising setting that could combine both, providing everyday nature contact while contributing to biodiversity data collection.
However, this potential rests on three key assumptions that remain largely untested: that schoolyards can support biodiversity, that this data can be collected by children and that such activities provide sufficient nature contact to influence psychological outcomes.
To test these assumptions, we implemented a seven-week citizen science intervention focusing on butterfly and plant monitoring in schoolyards across 15 primary schools in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The participating schoolyards represented a gradient of biodiversity and naturalness. Children conducted repeated standardized observations of butterflies and plants as part of weekly activities.
Using surveys, we assessed changes in children’s perceived biodiversity, well-being, empowerment and nature connectedness before and after the intervention, and tested whether environmental context moderates these effects. Specifically, we examined whether children at greener schoolyards benefit more strongly from the intervention than those at more sealed, biodiversity-poor sites.
Preliminary results of the first of three field seasons suggest that integrating citizen science into everyday school environments holds promise for both data collection and educational outcomes.
| Status Group | Doctoral Researcher |
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