Cultural probes for environmental education: Designing learning materials to engage children and teenagers with local biodiversity

1. The “experience of the natural context”. 2. The “assessment of the activities”. 3. The “description of the immediate context”. Responses categorized under (1) ‘‘experience of the natural context” are those in which the answer, or the dominant tone, of the answer emphasizes qualities of the lived experience in the natural context. Even when it includes descriptive elements, the description is usually associ- ated with the perception of the natural environment through the senses or feelings. For exam- ple, ‘‘nature, joy, happiness, beauty” (Table 5) emphasizes sentiments aroused through the experience of the nature-rich context. Responses categorized under (2) ‘‘assessment of the activities” correspond to answers whereby the answer itself, or the dominant tone, focuses on assessing the trail walk and/or the activities that it comprises. E.g., the participant response ‘‘This activity was interesting because I was able to pay attention to details and ask questions that I had never thought of before”. Those categorized under (3) ‘‘description of the immediate context” correspond to responses which enumerate, in an emotionally neutral way, elements of the participant’s direct experience. For example, ‘‘nature, birds, river, pond, scouting” describes only the fea- tures present in the external context (natural or not). Results also show that almost half of the participants (47%; n = 17) emphasized experiences in and with nature, as recollected during the open-ended activity. Less than one-third (28%; n = 10) focused their responses

on the assessment of the activity itself, while one-fifth (21%; n = 7) described the immediate context (Fig 11). Differences between age groups show that the assessment of the activity is more frequent in the older group, while younger participants represent the totality of descriptions of the imme- diate context, and the generality of the experiences relating to the natural context (Fig 11; χ2 (2) = 23,989; p < .001). The general prevalence of aesthetic, sensory, and emotional experiences in the final free, open-ended activity (signaled through words such as "beauty, delight, rest, smell") suggests that the CP offered an outdoor learning opportunity that builds on participants’ experience of nature. Moreover, we believe that experiences lived during the study might have been recog- nized by more participants if we had asked them to do so directly. Nonetheless, the indirect way in which responses were elicited gave us greater access to the relevance and authenticity of Table 5. Illustrative responses from the final free, open-ended activity according to three types of ‘‘dominant themes”, inspired by Litfin [1995]. Dominant theme Examples of responses Experience of the natural context ‘‘beauty, delight, rest, smell” ‘‘nature, joy, happiness, beauty” ‘‘Nature is the best that we can have because with her we can feel her sounds and fresh air, that is the contrary of the city.” Assessment of the activities ‘‘This activity was interesting because I was able to pay attention to details and ask questions that I had never thought of before.”

‘‘With this activity we were able to learn a little about some concepts of nature and about existent and non-existent animals in the lagoon or on the island.“ ‘‘I really liked the project. I think it is good that we can help in this kind of creative activity.” Description of the immediate context ‘‘nature, birds, river, pond, scouting” ‘‘rain, wind, mud, grass, islands, handkerchief” ‘‘trees, plants, wood, squirrels, scoutmaster, moss” https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0262853.t005 PLOS ONE Cultural probes for environmental education PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0262853 February 10, 2022 20 / 30