Tell a Story to Save a River: Assessing the Impact of Using a Children’s Book in the Classroom as a Tool to Promote Environmental Awareness

Abstract

Listening to a story stimulates children to understand concepts and vocabulary, while developing their background knowledge. Previous research indicates that the use of scientifically accurate literature helps children connect to the natural world. Promoting environmental education (EE) should be of utmost importance in school curricula, providing opportunities to students to improve their knowledge regarding the environment, and how to protect it. Particularly, marine ecosystems have been subject to increasing pressures, highlighting the importance of taking Ocean Literacy (OL) to the classroom. Drawing attention to more relatable environments, like a river, by tailoring OL activities to local contexts and community interests, might be an efficient strategy to raise awareness of ocean problems. A children’s book, written by a MARE (Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Portugal) researcher, with a macrobenthic invertebrate as the main character, was the springboard for an outreach project, developed with elementary school students. The project aimed to assess the impact of using a children’s book as a tool to promote environmental awareness, focusing on river basin ecological issues. Researchers conducted reading sessions of the book with 89 female and 87 male elementary school students (ages between 8–10). The target audience were students from two public and two private schools from an urban city and a city with a strong fishing tradition, aiming to assess if the reading session impacted students differently according to their background. A sequential explanatory mixed methodology was applied, using a pretest-posttest design, combined with focus group interviews in the last phase, to measure change in students’ knowledge, before and after the reading. Results demonstrated that there was an overall improvement in students’ knowledge regarding river basin biodiversity and anthropogenic threats they are subjected to. Furthermore, the idea that local impacts on rivers will also reach and influence the ocean was always present throughout the reading sessions. Students’ background, such as the type of school and region influenced higher posttest score results. In particular, students from Lisbon had higher scores in posttest results, while the same was observed for students from private schools. The present research revealed that a children’s book is an effective tool to improve environmental knowledge, while being an entertaining activity for students.

Towards a 2025 National Ocean Literacy Strategy: Current Status and Future Needs in Primary Education

“…Children's literature was the second most mentioned teaching method to teach marine science and 71% of respondents classified the use of children's books to be very or extremely effective in engaging children to learn about the ocean. Children's literature is a literary artform that provides a space for language development and can be used to increase pupils' understanding about science as it offers content knowledge and promotes inquiry and problem-solving scenarios (Wells and Zeece, 2007;Hadzigeorgiou, 2016;Mahzoon-Hagheghi et al, 2018;Aureĺio et al, 2021). For instance, Ansberry and Morgan (2010) described a study where students from a third-grade cohort scored higher in science assessments when using picture books compared to students using the textbook only.…”

Estrategias metodológicas para fomentar la conciencia ambiental: Retos en la educación

“…Las intervenciones centradas importancia de las metodologías y enfoques pedagógicos específicos en la formación de actitudes y conciencia ambiental sugieren que los estudiantes desarrollan una mayor conciencia ambiental cuando se enfrentan a problemas reales de su entorno local (Nurul & Ramadhan, 2021). Las metodologías activas, como el aprendizaje basado en proyectos, potencian la comprensión y actitud proambiental (Aurélio et al, 2021); las herramientas digitales pueden ser facilitadores efectivos para la educación ambiental, permitiendo una exploración interactiva de temas ambientales (Sulisworo et al, 2022); las intervenciones interdisciplinarias ofrecen una perspectiva holística de los problemas ambientales (Cheang et al, 2021); lLa reflexión crítica en el aula puede inducir cambios profundos en las actitudes y comportamientos de los estudiantes (Fatton et al, 2021); ante ell, el conocimiento sobre ecoetiquetas y energía renovable puede potenciar la conciencia ambiental general (Safitri et al, 2022). Entre las investigaciones centradas en la influencia de las actitudes y comportamientos hacia el medio ambiente, y cómo estas actitudes y comportamientos se traducen en prácticas proambientales tangibles, se ha encontrado que las actitudes positivas de los estudiantes hacia el medio ambiente suelen conducir a comportamientos sostenibles, aunque es esencial superar barreras prácticas y culturales para que se materialicen en acciones (Olufemi, 2019); las prácticas educativas que combinan reflexión crítica con acción práctica, como los proyectos comunitarios, son efectivas para promover comportamientos sostenibles (Gherhes et al, 2022); también, la implementación de proyectos ambientales específicos puede mejorar significativamente la conciencia ambiental de los estudiantes, destacando el valor de la educación práctica (Ayerbe & Perales, 2020).…”

كتاب قصصي تدخلي لغرس سلوك السفر المسؤول بين الأطفال في سن المدرسة: دراسة حالة استكشافية

“…Therefore, it is critical to examine Egyptian tourists' current travel behavior and try to alter their negative behaviors by educating them on how to act responsibly during travel. Since children are tourists of the future, and it was revealed that they have a strong influence on their parents' travel behavior and environmental knowledge and attitudes (Rakotomamonjy et al, 2015;Zwerts et al, 2010), accordingly, environmental education (EE) should be prioritized in school curricula, giving students the opportunity to develop their knowledge of the environment and how to protect it (Aurélio et al, 2021). Nevertheless, there is a significant absence of environmental education in early and middle childhood school curricula in Egypt (Faragallah, 2016).…”