About This Resource

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Welcome to Water, River, and ...

Water, River and ... is a voluntary learning resource designed to inspire children to extend the learning from the programme to family and learn together about the Water of Leith. Key objectives of this material are to raise awareness about environmental issues affecting our planet and promote pro-environmental behavior for the conservation of the River and the larger environment. The activities correspond to the topics covered in the programme, which are primarily biological concepts related to river ecology, geological concepts about river features and human activities related to the River. All of the activities suggested in the resource strive to encourage participants to immerse themselves in outdoor learning and arouse their curiosity about the environment. This is ultimately to establish their sense of place in the environment. Additionally, the activities invite parents to learn alongside their children in their surroundings, leading to intergenerational learning of environmental knowledge, which promote the implementation of pro-environmental behaviours inside the household. Hope these activities would allow you to immerse yourself in nature and create meaningful learning time with your family.

Resource Aim

To enhance the children and their parents' connectedness with nature and promote pro-environmental behaviours for conserving the River and the wider environment.

Applied Theories

Intergenerational Learning

Intergenerational environmental learning engages both parents and their children to learn about the nature and its the relationship with human. Through the bilateral transfer of knowledge within the household, it enhances environmental awareness, promotes sustainable behaviours (Lawson et al., 2019), and creates a shared commitment to conserving the planet, laying the foundation for a more ecologically conscious and responsible future (Spiteri, 2023).

Outdoor Learning

Outdoor spaces provide more opportunities for children to explore through experiential learning as the environment is more complex and diverse (Barrable, 2020). Furthermore, the elements that are present in nature can stimulate sensory and motor development, maintaining children's attention and arousing their interest (Nel, Joubert & Hartell, 2017), which creates an emotional connection with the environment (Otto & Pensini, 2017).

Child-led Learning

Child-led learning encourages interest-driven learning. It emphasizes children's autonomy, promoting intrinsic motivation for learning and behavioural change regardless of accolades (Tian et al., 2023). During parent-child communication, knowledge that is possessed differently by the two can be exchanged and new learning opportunities can be created (Spiteri, 2020). Meaningful sharing within the household could further facilitate the nurture of children's interests.

Sense of Place

By engaging in experiential outdoor learning activities that emphasise location, students become more enamoured of a certain place, which creates a sense of place to a certain location (Fägerstam, 2012). A strong connection to a place will develop one's responsibility to the environment and increase one's desire to learn about and protect it (Kudryavtsev, Stedman & Krasny, 2012).

Reference

Barrable, A. (2020). Shaping space and practice to support autonomy: lessons from natural settings in Scotland. Learning Environments Research, 23(3), 291-305.
Fägerstam, E. (2012). Teachers’ Views on the Relationship between Outdoor Environmental Education and a Sense of Place. In Kim, M. and Diong, C. H. (Ed.), Biology Education for Social and Sustainable Development (pp. 317–324). SensePublishers.
Kudryavtsev, A., Stedman, R. C., & Krasny, M. E. (2012). Sense of place in environmental education. Environmental education research, 18(2), 229-250.
Lawson, D. F., Stevenson, K. T., Peterson, M. N., Carrier, S. J., L. Strnad, R., & Seekamp, E. (2019). Children can foster climate change concern among their parents. Nature Climate Change, 9(6), 458-462.
Nel, A., Joubert, I., & Hartell, C. (2017). Teachers’ perceptions on the design and use of an outdoor learning environment for sensory and motor stimulation. South African Journal of Childhood Education, 7(1), 1-11.
Otto, S., & Pensini, P. (2017). Nature-based environmental education of children: Environmental knowledge and connectedness to nature, together, are related to ecological behaviour. Global Environmental Change, 47, 88-94.
Spiteri, J. (2020). Too young to know? A multiple case study of child-to-parent intergenerational learning in relation to environmental sustainability. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 14(1), 61-77.
Spiteri, J. (2023). Intergenerational learning: Environmental literacy in the family and beyond. In Educating for Sustainability in a Small Island Nation: Voices from Early Childhood Education (pp. 191-207). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Tian, J., Gong, Y., Li, Y., Sun, Y., & Chen, X. (2023). Children-led environmental communication fosters their own and parents' conservation behavior. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 42, 322-334.