Children’s Impressions of Familiar Wildlife Used for Environmental Education and the Effect of Experiencing Nature

Abstract

  A survey of elementary school students was conducted on preferences, catching behavior, and scariness (i.e., the child's impression for each wildlife creature commonly used for environmental education). As a result, we found that there were differences in children's impressions for each organism. The children's impressions of familiar wildlife can be shown in a triangular graph with the three sides representing likeability, playfulness, and evasion. Likeable creatures were, for example, fireflies, which were appealing, but difficult to capture. Typical playful creatures were pill bugs, which were not particularly appealing, but children would try to touch them when found. Evasive creatures were exemplified by spiders, which were not captured because they are scary; thus, not likeable. Furthermore, as a result of our analysis of the orientation of children's impressions of familiar wild creatures, as well as of groups possessed of similar cognate notional characteristics, it became clear that children's perceptions of Japanese rhinoceros beetles and stag beetles, as well as of lizards and mantises, were notionally similar. Results also showed that despite the different habitats of terrestrial grasshoppers and aquatic crayfish, terrestrial crickets and aquatic dragonfly larvae, and terrestrial cicadas and amphibious frogs, children imagined a notional affinity between the creatures in these respective pairs. Impressions also differed for creatures at different stages of life, such as dragonfly larvae and dragonflies or tadpoles and frogs

  In addition, experiencing nature can simply be lessons observing creatures outside the classroom, but the nature experience for this survey was “ecosystem experience-based learning” that included abiotic environments such as soil and water where the creatures lived. The results showed that regarding ecosystem experience-based learning, there were differences between boys and girls: the “likeability” score increased, particularly for boys; however, the “catching behavior” score increased for both boys and girls.