Quantifying plasticity of children's visions of nature

Visions of nature underlie how people behave toward the environment. It is often assumed that environmental education can nudge positive visions of nature and thus contribute to transformative change in individuals and ultimately societies. However, little is known about the effectiveness of educational activities. Here, we present an approach that quantifies these effects and how they depend on factors such as previously held visions. We demonstrate the approach assessing the normative, expressive, and cognitive dimensions of the visions of nature held by school children (11–12 years old, n = 120 children) before and after a full day of outdoor educational activities, including environmental measurements and games, in the Venice Lagoon, Italy. To quantify children's visions of nature, we used questionnaires and art they produced, and which we analyzed in quantitative ways. Results revealed that 75% of the children had a nature-centered perspective of the natural world before the outdoor educational activities. Most children maintained their perspective, but proportionally more children shifted from a human-centered to a nature-centered perspective than vice versa. Children with a nature-centered perspective of the natural world became more environmentally aware and “connected to” the lagoon after the field excursion, as suggested by increases in: (1) selection of environmental elements to describe the lagoon, (2) words associated with positive emotions, and (3) recognition of environment-friendly activities. In contrast, children with human-centered perspectives before the excursion tended to maintain associations of the lagoon with anthropogenic elements and mechanized activities. These results suggest that environmental education can consolidate the development of environmental awareness in children that already have nature-centered perspectives. While the current questionnaires and activities were customized to the Venice Lagoon, our approach measuring multiple dimensions of the visions of nature before and after educational interventions is generic and applicable to socio-ecological systems across the Global North and South.