Using the local environment as a case-study appears to boost student engagement during evolutionary science teaching
PhD student Romy Rice, part of the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath, led a project in Maio, Cabo Verde, an island nation off the West Coast of Africa with biodiversity rich but at-risk coastal wetlands. Working with local conservation NGO, Maio Biodiversity Foundation, and around 130 students aged 13 – 14 from local schools, Romy ran a series of educational interventions to evaluate the effectiveness of environmental education under different conditions. The aim of the project was to find the best way to improve students’ knowledge of ecology and evolution and develop positive attitudes towards the internationally significant ecosystem on their doorstep. The interventions, carried out in the first half of 2023, compared outcomes from in-field and in-classroom lesson delivery, and theory-before-practice or practice-before-theory pedagogy.
This project was funded as part of the 2022 Evolution Education Trust (EET) Challenge Fund. This Challenge Fund explored ways to improve appreciation of nature and biodiversity within communities facing economic or access challenges. EET collaborated with the British Science Association to deliver a wrap-around programme of support for all Challenge Fund project teams via a Community of Practice (CoP) model. Project leaders were brought together every three months to share insights, develop ideas and overcome common challenges. The CoP was also a platform for training in how to build, use and evaluate a Theory of Change. This helped the teams better communicate their goals, maximise learnings and set up their own impact measurement.
The value of peer-to-peer support
The CoP fostered a collaborative network through which Romy, a first-time project leader, found reassurance and practical advice. This was particularly true when discussing project complexities with peers working in the Galapagos Islands who were facing similar challenges. The realisation that different organisations encountered similar difficulties provided Romy with a sense of solidarity and encouragement. This collective wisdom helped Romy interpret project outcomes and refine audience understanding.
“As a PhD student, this was the first big project I’ve led. The conversations were really reassuring – no matter what the project was, we found everyone was facing similar issues.”
Romy Rice, EET Scholar, Milner Centre for Evolution
Lessons learned
The project uncovered insights on the use of local context to make educational activities relatable, taking a step back to explore the practical significance of unexpected experimental results, and the importance of being flexible and patient when getting started with a school-based project.
- Make sure that you identify and test assumptions that have shaped your project. An assumption can be tricky to spot, so spend some time to learn the educational and environmental context of your students. For example, young people in UK learn basic evolutionary concepts at the primary level. That is not the case in Cabo Verde, however. The UK base level of knowledge was incorrectly assumed during project development and that resulted in the educational intervention having to be redesigned just before delivery. On the flip side, however, Maio Biodiversity Foundation had delivered many nature conservation interventions within the school and that laid a solid interest in biodiversity throughout the cohort. That interest was higher than you would typically find amongst UK-based secondary students. It turned out to be a great hook for maintaining student interest throughout the project.
- Don’t underestimate the time needed to gather educational and environmental context, and make sure you engage directly with the teachers who are working with the students. Romy notes: “In working with schools, whatever time you have written down on your plan, double it. Whether it be gathering information from teachers, or trying to get students out and back from a fieldtrip, don’t underestimate the logistical overheads.”
- When framing discussions with the students, use local relatable examples and terminology as much as possible. For example, instead of referring to “the wetland” it was better to talk about “the Salinas” because that ecological area is right next door to the school. This use of local context made things less abstract and helped to create chatter and excitement: “Oh, I’ve seen that bird!”, or “I’ve been there!”. It offered a familiar and practical context into which the teaching of evolutionary theory could be embedded.
- Building on results from a previous pilot classroom activity that Romy delivered for 142 fourth-grade students on the island, early results from this project indicate that singular outdoor engagement experiences may not measurably change environmental attitudes. Further, an unexpected result of this work was that measured knowledge gain is the same whether educational interventions are delivered in the classroom or in the field. This “no-difference” result is valuable to the school leadership as off-site days are expensive and complex to organise. It appears that, as long as there is a good baseline level of interest in the local environment, that local context can be enough to maintain class interest in learning about evolution.
Where next?
The experimental results of this project will form the basis of a soon-to-be-published paper. By producing somewhat unexpected results, we have highlighted the importance of combining evolution and conservation together in education. These results create a base to build upon through future studies, for example investigating the impact of long-term educational interventions, and examining the impact of using local vs. general (non-local) examples of nature in evolution education. This project also presents an opportunity to further develop the partnership with Maio Biodiversity Foundation. The base level of student interest in local nature which they have helped to develop is inspiring, and it is an educational opportunity.
