by CM Bruni, PL Winter, PW Schultz, AM Omoto, JJ Tabanico

Environmental Education Research 23(1):43-62

2015

There is growing concern that people, and children in particular, are losing their connection to nature. This paper aimed to assess the success of three Get To Know programs at instilling in children a greater connection to nature. The Creative Arts Contest encourages children to incorporate inspiration from nature into mixed media art projects, the Natural Treasure Adventure is a series of mapped trails with stations for creating rubbings of nature-themed plaques, and the Virtual Hike is a website displaying trails with information about animals and plants. Connections to nature after the activities were measured implicitly using an Implicit Association Test for Nature. The art program was associated with an increased connection to nature but the other two were not.

Region: Los Angeles, California
Publication Type: Journal article
Keywords: children and youth, contact with nature, Los Angeles, and recreation