Connecting high school students with nature – How different guided tours in the zoo influence the success of extracurricular educational programs
Zoo-based education programs can be effective in promoting connection to nature for high school students
Research on zoos has focused on knowledge gain and attitude change as factors influencing pro-environmental behavior, given that conservation is one of the primary goals of zoos. Connection to nature as a desired outcome of zoo visits has rarely been investigated, even though it is an important factor in pro-environmental behavior. This research addressed this topic by investigating the impact of different educational zoo programs on high school students’ connectedness to nature.
This study was conducted in two steps. Over 1500 German students (in grades 5th-13th) participated in the first step, which is referred to as Study 1. This step asked students to indicate the extent of their interest in 15 biology-related items (plants, animals, the environment, zoos, etc.). Student responses showed a significant decrease in interest in animals after the sixth grade. Interest in plants declined after the fifth grade and remained at a low level for the rest of the students’ school careers. The health and environmental factors showed consistently high levels. Students in more advanced grades showed less interest in zoos than students in lower grades.
For Study 2, the age group with the least interest in zoos or zoo animals was selected to participate. Over 600 students from the advanced classes (grades 12 and 13) participated in one of six educational experiences at the zoo. One experience consisted of a guided tour without an add-on. The other five experiences consisted of the same guided tour plus one add-on. The add-ons included giraffe feeding, meerkat feeding, a keeper talk, a behind-the-scenes look, and petting goats in the children’s zoo. All Study 2 participants completed a connection-to-nature assessment (the Inclusion of Nature in Self scale) before and after their zoo visits.
Connection-to-nature scores for all groups increased from before to after the zoo visits. These increases were not significant for groups of students scoring high before the zoo visits, but were highly significant for groups with low initial scores (except for the petting zoo group). The effect of feeding giraffes was greater than the effects of other add-on experiences.
These results indicate that even the most basic environmental education program in a zoo — a 1 hour guided tour — has the potential to increase connection to nature. While small additions to the tour can improve the result, not all add-ons show a similar positive effect. This study demonstrated that, while “interest in plants and animals, especially zoo animals, decreases during the education period,” guided zoo tours can increase connection to nature among high school students.
Citation
Kleespies, M.W., Gübert, J., Popp, A., Hartmann, N., Dietz, C., Spengler, T., Becker, M., Dierkes, P.W., (2020). Connecting high school students with nature – How different guided tours in the zoo influence the success of extracurricular educational programs. Frontiers in Psychology, 11
