How Education Can Be Leveraged to Foster Adolescents’ Nature Connection

Abstract

Our aim in this chapter is to present an overview of the importance of nature connection for adolescents (12-18 year olds). This target group is a well-considered choice since the interest in nature dips in adolescence (e.g., Olsson & Gericke, 2016;Krettenauer et al., 2020). In this chapter, we bring together key insights from different disciplines on the relevance of nature connection in adolescence, in particular from the health-and education sciences perspectives. First, we will clarify the terminology used in this chapter: we will define our use on the concepts 'nature connection' and 'outdoor environmental education' and establish the association between them. What follows is an overview of the importance of nature for adolescents and the prominent role education can play in fostering nature connection in this target group. We will also show that despite the many advantages, several thresholds and levers can be identified in the literature for working on nature connection with adolescents, especially during secondary education. Subsequently, we zoom in on the practical experiences and the obstacles that we identify at

Only green time, and not screen time, predicts connectedness to nature among urban middle school students

“…Our study shows that green time is a significant predictor of higher INS scores. Some other studies show that it is important to have daily contact with nature, not just field trips a few times a year (Heyman et al, 2023). Here, we argue that schools need to provide more green space on their premises for teaching (e.g., school gardens with trees, flowers, bird nesting boxes, etc.).…”