Generating an environmental awareness system for learning using IoT technology

Abstract

Plants have numerous beneficial effects on mental health, well-being, and indoor air quality. Nonetheless, these effects are not sufficiently well addressed in educational contexts. The increasing availability of sensors, networks, and cloud services can facilitate real-time measurements to perform data analysis on plants and the environment in which they coexist with students and teachers. This article addresses the use of plants and Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology to educate students (and teachers) on the benefits of using plants in indoor learning contexts (i.e., classrooms, study rooms, offices, libraries). The contribution of this research is threefold: first, a theoretical framework to design learning activities targeting environmental awareness is presented; second, an IoT system (Spike) specifically designed to monitor plants in learning spaces is described and evaluated; third, alternative learning activities and paths for learning using plants and IoT technology are described from a teachers’ and students’ perspective. These results show the potential of IoT technology to teach and to promote environmental awareness.