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

a local community of participants. Our goal was to understand what interests’ children and teenagers as they interact with nature-rich environments. Akin to the early “community con- tent-based instruction” model [6], we intend to use the results to aid in the subsequent design of materials for the FG project. Additionally, and in line with the CP literature [19, 21], this study was an opportunity to build a rapport with research participants who also represent a local community of children and teenagers. We achieved this by designing a CP toolkit that affords an informal learning experience in a nature-rich environment. We were keen to use the toolkit to invite participants to share their curiosity in interacting with the surrounding natural world with our research team. Preliminary results suggest that a CP toolkit containing question-based activities can afford positive meaningful experiences in and with nature. By situating this study’s findings within EE research, we hope that the unique characteristics of CP can be understood and utilized by the EE community. Although these strategies are born out of design-related inquiry and qualitative research more broadly, our analysis shows that we can apply CP to create EEM. However, further research is needed to support our argu- ment and better implement the CP technique within the range of contexts that characterize contemporary EE. Supporting information S1 Dataset. (XLSX) S1 Fig. (TIF) Acknowledgments We are grateful to the Azorean Scouts of Lajes (Group 344), of Santa Ba´rbara (Group 630),

and their respective coordinators: He´lder Nunes, Luı´sa Mendes, Daniela Nunes, Daniela Lima, So´nia Toste, Beatriz Cabral, João Toste, Telma Espı´nola, Celso Mendonc¸a, and Gonc¸alo Mar- tins. We are thankful to the research assistants who contributed to the data collection, namely: Cla´udia Garcia, Ene´sima Pereira, Juami Marı´n, and U´ rsula Cuevas. We also acknowledge the contribution of Paulo A. V. Borges, Director of the Azorean Biodiversity Group, Cristina Ma´guas, Director of the Centre of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, and Mar- garida Luı´s representing the Nature Park of Terceira Island. We are also thankful to both reviewers for their excellent feedback during the submission of the first manuscript of this paper. Their comments helped us significantly improve all sections of the text. Author Contributions Conceptualization: So´nia Matos, Duarte Sousa, Ana Picanc¸o, Isabel R. Amorim, Simone Ashby, Rosalina Gabriel, Ana Moura Arroz. Data curation: So´nia Matos, Alexandra R. Silva, Ana Picanc¸o, Ana Moura Arroz. Formal analysis: So´nia Matos, Alexandra R. Silva, Ana Moura Arroz. Investigation: Duarte Sousa, Ana Picanc¸o, Isabel R. Amorim, Rosalina Gabriel, Ana Moura Arroz. Methodology: So´nia Matos, Alexandra R. Silva, Simone Ashby, Ana Moura Arroz. Supervision: So´nia Matos, Rosalina Gabriel, Ana Moura Arroz. PLOS ONE Cultural probes for environmental education PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0262853 February 10, 2022 27 / 30