Mangrove planting initiative within a collaborative project-based biology course to improve students' climate literacy

Abstract

Mangrove planting project is one of the most beneficial conservation efforts in coastal areas in terms of environmental impact and carbon sequestration rate. We hypothesized that it would serve as an effective learning strategy if the planting project were planned and organized by the student within a structured biology course. This study examines the impact of the mangrove planting project as a climate initiative program within a biology course towards students' climate literacy. In this study, 57 students who participated in a mangrove planting project within the Conservation of Coastal Resources course were assigned a climate change questionnaire. The change in participants' climate literacy was measured before and after the intervention. Climate literacy is measured in three aspects i.e., climate action readiness, climate concerns, and pro-climatic attitude. The result shows that mangrove planting projects increase all measured aspects significantly, with climate action readiness showing the highest improvement. These findings confirmed the benefits of collaborative project-based learning to improve the students' climate literacy.