Educational actvity to sensitize children on grassland biodiversity conservation, animal welfare and social utility of research

Study aim was to explore children’s knowledge and level of awareness to 3 general concepts represen>ng the 3 project’s pillars grassland biodiversity, animal welfare and the social u>lity of research, by means of an observa>onal study involving 252 students of both genders, aged between 9 and 11. The educa>onal ac>vity was organized in 3 mee>ngs; interac>ve ppt presenta>ons about the project topics were proposed, followed by ludic ac>vi>es to enable the children to review the concepts discussed during the theore>cal parts. Two different types of tests referred to as “aptude ques>onnaire” (AQ) and “maximum performance test” (MPT) were administered during the project. The AQ was administered before the start and at the end of the project to assess both the children’s sensi>vity to the treated topics and their awareness toward the project’s pillars. The test consisted of 15 items; for each item children could express their degree of agreement/disagreement by choosing from 1 to 5 score to obtain useful data for sta>s>cal processing. Cumula>ve Link Mixed Models were used to test for the effects of the various explanatory variables on the children’s responses. Data were analyzed in R Studio using the “lme4” package. The MPT aim was to evaluate if children had understood the topics explained during the mee>ngs in the immediate term. Each test contained sentences about the specific mee>ng topics, respondents had to choose between "true" or "false" op>ons. The correla>on between MPT score and school Science evalua>ons of each child was analyzed. Among the 5 items for each pillar, 4 items related to biodiversity, 3 items related to animal welfare and 2 items related to social u>lity of research, showed a significant difference in the second AQ responses. The analysis of data from the MPT showed that the didac>c methodology used was effec>ve and improved the posi>on of most of the children bringing them into higher Science evalua>on groups. The children's awareness of the topics increased and showed the effec>veness of dissemina>on in Ci>zen science ac>vi>es. The children expressed their thoughts and apprecia>on through pictures and nursery rhymes, and someone expressed their inten>on to care for animals, protect biodiversity and to become a scien>st.