How to Implement Biodiversity Research in the Classroom? Halle, Germany

Ireland International Conference on Education (IICE-2013)
How to Implement Biodiversity Research in the Classroom?
Karin Ulbrich, Josef Settele, Stefan Klotz
Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research-UFZ, Theodor-Lieser-Straße 4, 06120
Halle, Germany
Abstract
Climate change and dramatic loss of biodiversity
are essential subjects for EU research. However, little
of current knowledge is reaching the young
generation. In order to implement biodiversity
research into the reality of school education
educational software has been developed which
combines desktop work with field experiences. The
software PRONAS shows how scientists handle
questions about the impact of climate change on
species’ habitats. It makes core results of research
projects available for students from 12 to 19 and is
freely accessible on www.ufz.de/pronas- lernsoftware.
Three basic scenarios characterize ”possible future
worlds“. Components are the storyline with “Tom and
Tina”, the “Science” entry with detailed information,
four virtual excursions, the “Species gallery” with
more than 30 plant and animal species and a number
of interactive projects. A special book for teachers which was written in close cooperation with teachers shows how to apply PRONAS in the in– and out-ofclassroom learning.
1. Introduction
The present paper deals with the question how
researchers, in particular environmental scientists,
can implement research results in the educational
sector. This question is of high significance in a
situation where young people are more and more
alienated from nature, where they are growing up
without close and emotional relation to nature [1].
Up to thirty years ago people have been spending
many hours a week outside. Nowadays, digital media
influence everyday life to an increasing extent.
Young people in developed countries consume a
huge variety of artificial goods but don’t know what
they are made of and where they come from.
Knowledge about nature is uncool, less and less
students want to study sciences.
In this situation, we as today’s ecologists are
concerned about how they will be able to care for the
Copyright © IICE-2013 Published by Infonomics Society
environment later. As early as in 1992, the
International Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD) emphasized the global commitment to the
conservation of nature and it underpinned
biodiversity in the fi elds of environmental
education. Biodiversity education should form an
essential component of the education for sustainable
development (ESD). The importance of addressing
the issues of natural resources must be highlighted as
part of its broader agenda. In particular, ESD should
encourage new behaviours to protect the world’s
natural resources.
Scientists can play an important role in
knowledge building and awareness rising among
young people as they hold highly valuable goods in
terms of comprehensive research projects.
We
demonstrate how we developed the educational
environment PRONAS (PROjections of Nature for
Schools, www.ufz.de/pronas-lernsoftware) in close
collaboration with educators [7,8].
The scientific basis was the large-scale
interdisciplinary research project ALARM (Assessing
LARge scale environmental risks for biodiversity
with tested Methods, www.alarmproject.net).
The
integrated project ALARM was made up of 67
partner organizations and 250 scientists from 35
countries and received EC funding of nearly 13
million Euro [6]. ALARM focused on some of the
main drivers of biodiversity change (climate and land
use change, environmental chemicals, invasive
species, and loss of pollinators) and combined
ecological, environmental, and economic research.
ALARM provides coherent scenarios of socioeconomic, climate, land use and other biodiversityrelevant trends, exploring the framework conditions
for biodiversity pressures. The three basic scenarios
are: SEDG – Sustainable European Development
Goal, BAMBU – Business- As-Might-Be-Usual and
GRAS - GRowth Applied Strategy.
The real challenge was to establish a learning
environment and resources that leverage what we
now know about climate change and risks for
biodiversity to augment understanding of ecological
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Ireland International Conference on Education (IICE-2013)
processes in students and to motivate them to
individual activities..
2. Methods
In order to transfer scientific findings into the
reality of school education we brought members of
the scientific and educational communities together
to work through the ecological and pedagogical
issues to effective use of scientific content in
education. School teachers – both veteran teachers
and those preparing to enter the field have been
involved in the network. Pedagogical researchers,
educators from field stations, students from schools
and from high schools participated in the project.
Studies indicate that using digital media is an
appropriate way to reach young people. In 2012,
nearly 100% of 12 to 19 year old students had
personal internet access via computer or laptop [5],
as shown in Figure 1.
Internet access via
smartphones increased from 11% in 2010 to 43% in
2012.
100
75
50
25
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
5/6
7/8
9/10
11/12
Figure 2. Number of ecology-related
topics in German curricula for the different
grades. Presented are the preliminary
results for 13 out of 16 federal states. Green
bars: Biology, brown bars: Geography
3. Results
The educational software PRONAS has been
developed as the main part of the educational
environment, (see www.ufz.de/pronas-lernsoftware).
We have translated results of the large integrated
project ALARM [6], to bring across the concepts of
scenario work to the daily lives of high school
students (see Fig.3) and were able to jointly develop
elements for German biology curricula in formats
designed for and mainly by the teachers concerned
[8]. These elements combined desk (or rather lap)top work with field experiences (virtual excursions
combined with real ones – see Figures 4 to 6).
0
Figure 1. Internet access of 12 to 19 year
old students in Germany from 2010 to 2012.
Left bars: via Computer; Right bars: via
Smartphone [5]
It was shown in [4] that students using
multimedia in interactive situations were engaged in
higher-order thinking compared with what that
student would have accomplished with traditional
learning.
With the aim of an effective software design a
preliminary review of curricula has been conducted
to find potential links between the research content
and the school curricula (Fig. 2). In Germany, each
of the federal states is completely responsible for its
educational system. So there are 16 states and 16
curricula. The review presented here shows
preliminary results for 13 curricula. Links to
ecological topics can be found in most of the
curricula (Figure 2). While in the younger grades
more species-related issues are on the agenda, older
students are dealing with more complex issues such
as ecosystems, land use or climate change.
Copyright © IICE-2013 Published by Infonomics Society
Figure 3. Guided tour in PRONAS: Tom
and Tina meet real scientists
As students learn better from narration and
animation a guided tour with the comic-like
characters Tom and Tina lead the user through five
chapters. Real scientists appear in the software and
explain how they deal with the complex tasks of
climate change. Interactive tools for the simulation
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Ireland International Conference on Education (IICE-2013)
of scenarios and resulting climatic niches are
provided for 15 butterfly species and more than 30
other animal and plant species..
Figure 6. Students on an excursion to the places
of spruce forest die-back described in the Virtual
excursion. Photo: K.Ulbrich
4. Discussion
Figure 4. Virtual excursions (e.g. to the
Harz mountains in Germany) offer scientific
based content and motivate to undertake
real excursions
Figure 5. Distribution maps of the
European spruce Picea abies,provided in the
Virtual excursion. Left: Distribution area in
2000. Right: Potential area in 2080, assuming
the scenario RED.
Copyright © IICE-2013 Published by Infonomics Society
Effective communication between scientists,
educators, and curriculum developers is a challenge.
For most scientists it is difficult to translate their
terminology into language that educators and
students can understand. At the same time, educators
often lack the time to obtain and prepare the
scientific information into a form they can use [2]. In
the present project, these obstacles could be resolved
in close collaboration of experts of both the scientific
and the education community.
Tests with 15 classes indicated that students are
willing and open to deal with learning resources
from “outside”. Many students are enthusiastic about
learning from “real scientists”.
PRONAS tries to combine “rigor with curiosity
and engagement” [3]. Virtual excursions seem to be
a useful method to combine abstract learning with
life nature experience.
Through our activities we had to learn a) how
poorly current scientific knowledge has entered
many classrooms (a lot of information taught is by
far outdated), but also b) how much efforts are really
needed to change situations.
We think that there is an urgent need to bring
knowledge from the spheres of Science really “down
to Earth”, i.e. into classrooms – but we also feel that
incentives for scientists to do so are often too scarce.
Discussions with more than one hundred teachers
enabled us to create instructions for teachers that
show in detail how the educational software,
excursions and suggested citizen science projects can
be applied. PRONAS is provided in German and in
English. It is freely available on www.ufz.de/pronaslernsoftware.
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Ireland International Conference on Education (IICE-2013)
5. Conclusions
Close collaboration of experts of both the scientific
and the education community is needed to make results
of environmental research projects available for
classroom education. Scientists contribute with actual,
highly challenging knowledge bases, whereas educators
bring in their age-based teaching experience. Story-like
guided tours, virtual excursions, interactive tests, and
simulation tools are proved didactic approaches for
educational software that inspires students to go from the
computer to nature and back from the nature to computer.
6. References
[1] Brämer, R., Jugendreport Natur 2010, Bonn, Marburg,
Juni 2010 . www.natursoziologie.de, 04.09.13.
[2] T. S. Ledley, L. Dahlman, C. McAuliffe1, N. Haddad,
M. R. Taber, B. Domenico, S. Lynds, M. Grogan. Making
Earth Science Data Accessible and Usable in Education.
Science 333, 2011, pp 1838-1839.
[3] J. Mervis, Science Standards Begin Long, Hard Road to
Classroom. Science 17 July 2013.
[4] MetriGroup-Commissioned by Cisco. Multimodal
Learning Through Media: What the Research Says. Cisco
Systems,Inc.,2008.
http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/docs/education/Multim
odal-Learning-Through-Media.pdf,
15.08.13.
http://www.mpfs.de/index.php?id=527, 04.09.13.
[5] MPFS – Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverbund
Südwest, JIM-Studie 2012.
[6] J. Settele I. Kühn, S. Klotz, V. Hammen, J. Spangenberg.
Is the EU Afraid of its Own Visions? Science 315, 1220
(2007) (see www.alarmproject.net).
[7] Ulbrich, K., J. Settele, C. Hörning and F.F. Benedict,
Biodiversity in Education for Sustainable Development –
Reflection on School – Research Cooperation, Pensoft
Publishers, 2010.
[8] Ulbrich, K., A.K. Lindau, C. Hörning and J. Settele,
Lebensräume von Tieren und Pflanzen simulieren –
Zukunftsszenarien zum Einfluss des Klimawandels, Pensoft
Publishers, 2011. (German language material for the
application of scenario techniques for schools and
environmental education).
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