A new approach to urban biodiversity
Urban expansion has had a deep impact on biodiversity, altering ecosystems and affecting people’s health. Aware of this problem, Rovira i Virgili University (URV) began, seven years ago, an innovative initiative on its Sescelades campus: the Butterfly Garden, a space dedicated to the preservation and promotion of local biodiversity.
A purposeful educational space
With an area of approximately 200 m2, this garden has been designed with plants that bloom for almost all year, thus helping to restore lost biodiversity in the area. In addition to being a green space, the garden serves as a learning platform for students of the Faculty of Education and Psychology of the URV, which each year design educational projects related to biodiversity.
Active learning methodology
Through a project -based learning methodology, students create teaching activities that they present during a science fair dedicated to elementary schools. Maite novo, researcher and teacher at the URV, emphasizes that before the fair, elementary students carry out a research work on biodiversity, which helps them to ask questions and seek answers.
Analysis of the educational impact
To evaluate the effectiveness of this initiative, the URV team conducted a study published in the scientific journal Sustainability. The results reveal that the teaching students who participated in this project have improved their perception of biodiversity and their intention to integrate environmental education in their future classrooms.
Practical experience and positive results
For five weeks, 86 students designed activities for the Science Fair, encouraging active learning by solving real problems. The results were amazing: 100% of the participants acknowledged that the butterfly garden contributes to urban biodiversity, while 97.5% indicated that this experience had helped them to understand how to integrate environmental education into their classes.
Reflections on the future of environmental education
The qualitative responses of the students emphasized the importance of contact with nature and the design of real educational activities. Keywords such as ‘sustainability’, ‘learning’ and ‘consciousness’ emerged in their reflections. This study showed that future teachers will develop a more committed attitude to the transmission of environmental values.
A challenge for the future
However, the study also revealed that many students do not perceive the interconnection between urban biodiversity and human health. This lack of understanding emphasizes the need to reinforce the concept of ‘One Health’, which links human, animal and environmental health, in the formation of future educators.
With initiatives such as the Butterfly Garden, the URV seeks not only to restore urban biodiversity, but also to train teachers aware of their essential role in the preservation of the environment.