Explore your local biodiversity - How school grounds evoke visions of sustainability

Abstract

Biodiversity and sustainability are key words of modern nature-of-science teaching. While most studies use rather abstract examples for biodiversity loss, we focused on habitats that students are familiar with. Our module was developed to deepen the understanding of domestic botanical ecosystems by having students work with and on designated pasture areas. The economic implications of sustainability were addressed by contrasting intensive and extensive agriculture, as well as by touching upon topics such as organic labels and modern agriculture. By focusing on domestic ecosystems within everyday contexts, combined with digital teaching methods, we successfully increased individual knowledge levels when taking before-and-after participation scores into account. Based on these results, we conclude that our approach to using different forms of pasture on the school grounds is a promising way to improve students' understanding of the economic and ecological implications of sustainability.