Connecting high school students with nature – how different guided tours in the zoo influence the success of extracurricular educational programs
- Zoos attract millions of visitors every year, many of whom are schoolchildren. For this reason, zoos are important institutions for the environmental education of future generations. Empirical studies on the educational impact of environmental education programs in zoos are still rare. To address this issue, we conducted two studies: In study 1, we investigated students’ interests in different biological topics, including zoos (n = 1,587). Data analysis of individual topics revealed large differences of interest, with advanced students showing less interest in zoos. In study 2, we invited school classes of this age group to visit different guided tours at the zoo and tested connection to nature before and after each educational intervention (n = 608). The results showed that the guided tours are an effective tool to raise students’ connection to nature. Add-on components have the potential to further promote connection to nature. The education programs are most effective with students with a low initial nature connection.
Author: | Matthias KleespiesORCiDGND, Jennifer GübertORCiD, Alexander Popp, Nicola Hartmann, Christian Dietz, Tanja Spengler, Martin Becker, Paul Wilhelm DierkesORCiD |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-552202 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01804 |
ISSN: | 1664-1078 |
Parent Title (German): | Frontiers in psychology |
Publisher: | Frontiers Research Foundation |
Place of publication: | Lausanne |
Document Type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of Publication (online): | 2020/08/04 |
Date of first Publication: | 2020/08/04 |
Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
Release Date: | 2020/08/05 |
Tag: | INS; connection to nature; environmental education; interest in animals; zoo education |
Volume: | 11 |
Issue: | 1804 |
Page Number: | 14 |
Note: | Copyright © 2020 Kleespies, Gübert, Popp, Hartmann, Dietz, Spengler, Becker and Dierkes. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
HeBIS-PPN: | 469530944 |
Institutes: | Biochemie, Chemie und Pharmazie |
Biowissenschaften / Biowissenschaften | |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 3 Sozialwissenschaften / 37 Bildung und Erziehung / 370 Bildung und Erziehung |
5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 59 Tiere (Zoologie) / 590 Tiere (Zoologie) | |
Sammlungen: | Universitätspublikationen |
Licence (German): | ![]() |