![]() A key driver is rapid and ongoing urbanisation, which can result in a marked reduction in opportunities to experience nature, as a high proportion of urban areas are composed of artificial materials and segregated from natural systems and processes. Worldwide, children are becoming less likely to have direct contact with nature. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Ĭompeting interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Additional financial support was provided by the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences at the University of Brighton. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.ĭata Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.įunding: Funding for the project came from the Sussex Ornithological Society’s (SOS) Avifauna Award ( ). Received: SeptemAccepted: FebruPublished: March 6, 2018Ĭopyright: © 2018 White et al. PLoS ONE 13(3):Įditor: Etsuro Ito, Waseda University, JAPAN We therefore believe that such interventions, if repeated locally/longer term, could enhance children’s experience with nature in urban settings with combined positive environmental impact.Ĭitation: White RL, Eberstein K, Scott DM (2018) Birds in the playground: Evaluating the effectiveness of an urban environmental education project in enhancing school children’s awareness, knowledge and attitudes towards local wildlife. Collectively, the findings from this study highlight the multiple benefits that can be derived from engagement with a relatively short outdoor environmental activity. One year after the project, several schools were continuing to feed and watch birds. ![]() Mirroring this, participating teachers endorsed the project as a positive learning experience for their students. Student project evaluation scores were consistently positive. Many children expressed a keenness to continue improving the environmental value of their school grounds and to apply elements of the project at home. Via pre- and post-project questionnaires, we found evidence for enhanced awareness of local biodiversity, alongside significant gains in both bird identification knowledge and attitudes, which were greatest for children with little prior exposure to nature. ![]() This initiative was conducted across eight (sub-)urban primary schools within Brighton and Hove (UK), with 220 participating children (aged 7 to 10). Here, we explore and assess the influence of a six-week bird-feeding and monitoring project conducted within school grounds (“Bird Buddies”) on individual awareness, knowledge and attitudes towards birds by primary school children. However, limited research has been conducted evaluating to what extent these interventions achieve their goals. Urban environmental education programmes typically aim to increase awareness and knowledge of local biodiversity and to promote positive attitudes and behaviour towards the environment. ![]() Yet there are many potential benefits from children interacting with nature first-hand, including via outdoor learning opportunities. Children nowadays, particularly in urban areas, are more disconnected from nature than ever before, leading to a large-scale “extinction of experience” with the natural world.
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