Author: Rita Campos – CES-UC – Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal

Capulanas are traditional fabrics found in many African countries, usually display a rich diversity of colourful patterns and several patterns have shapes allusive to natural elements. Being also easy to manipulate, capulanas offer a unique opportunity to initiate a conversation about African biodiversity. This was tested in a series of sessions with pre-schoolers (3 to 6 years old) held in the scope of an exhibition about the biodiversity of Mozambique. The sessions started with an exploration of a terrestrial globe, where the children were able to identify their current country, Portugal, and continent, Europe, and relate it to Africa and Mozambique. Then, the children were invited to choose their favourite capulana from a pile and find the biodiversity “hidden” in the pattern. This led to a discussion about the species represented, where they live, why some species can only be found in a given part of the world or if a given species is more or less known, abundant or likable. In other words, the capulanas allowed to talk about biodiversity, evolution, adaptation, geography, environmental characteristics, human induce changes, … Finally, the children engaged in a “paint your own capulana” activity, which allows to understand how biodiversity is perceived by young children and how science communication can target the “invisible species”. These sessions have a high potential to engage the audience, promoting co-construction of knowledge from shared stories and perceptions, and are easily done with other traditional and non-traditional fabrics, widening the geographic area and the discussion about different species or other topics related to biodiversity or environmental sustainability. Furthermore, since traditional fabrics are connected to social and cultural aspects of human societies, it can be used as communication vehicles for delivering a diversified range of messages or reaching different groups, including publics traditionally less interested or engaged with science.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Insight talk
Theme: Time

Author: Rita Campos – CES-UC – Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal

Co-authors:

  • José Melo-Ferreira – CIBIO-InBIO – Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, InBIO Associated Laboratory, Un Portugal

Climate change poses numerous challenges to the environment and the survival of species, humans included. But in spite of the scientific consensus related to the influence of human activities on environmental imbalance, and the recent civic mobilization demanding political action to address climate change, there is still some resistance on the public opinion about the real impacts of the current climate crisis. Science communication can be a powerful ally to raise awareness on these issues.

“Coats for snow” is an activity to help communicating the impacts of climate change and foster new dialogues on the topic. It was designed as a “consultative science communication” activity, inspired by the “AEIOU vowel analogy” of science communication. As such, to facilitate Interest and Understanding, we tell a story inspired on ongoing research, studying how species adapted to cold environments with winter snow can be affected by increasing global temperature and consequent decrease of snow cover. To promote engagement and Enjoyment, we use a game that allows the active participation of the public. To contribute to informed Opinions and behavioural changes, we include a before-and-after debate, where different aspects of climate change can be addressed.

The activity was tested with children aged 9-10 years old after a guided visit to a Natural History Museum Gallery. It proved to be an attractive strategy, encouraging highly interactive discussions around climate change and its impact on biodiversity. However, even though climate change is widely mentioned in the media and many school students are adhering to climate strikes worldwide, almost all children that participated in the activity declared that they have never heard of it. This led us to conclude that efforts to communicate and engage the public with climate change issues should include younger children. Results from the “coats for snow” activity show that it is possible.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Visual presentation
Theme: Time

Author: Rita Campos – CES-UC – Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal

As more and more humans move from rural to urban settings, there’s a growing scientific interest related to the impacts and benefits of urban green spaces on humans. Evidence shows a positive relation between urban biodiversity and health, well-being, quality of life and social interactions. Urban green spaces are important parts of the urban ecosystem. In times of rapid climate change, larger green spaces, in particular, offer solutions for dealing with extreme heat waves, debacles or floods. Additionally, these “urban forests” are also spaces that promote a first contact with the natural environment, and the local biodiversity, and consequently motivate informal environmental learning. Many of these spaces also have a high historical and cultural value, helping to build the identity of the city and their inhabitants. Thus, research results highlighting the positive impacts of urban green spaces should be used to inform decisions in city planning. But what really matters to preschool children when planning urban settings? Young children are actors usually excluded from political decisions and also from many science communication projects. However, participatory science communication models can help to connect their everyday life with both local policies and science-related content, empowering them in agenda-setting. Using a participatory approach for engagement, combining visual methods and storytelling, we aimed at understanding what preschool children prefer in the city landscape so that their interests can be included in urban development and foster the inclusion of children in the designing and planning of their environment. Results show how young children envision a “better city” and how that construction sometimes defies current scientific data. It further illustrates how science communication can be used to produce new knowledge on issues that usually exclude the targeted public – preschool children – and that contributes to the debate about people’ needs and perceptions and science-based options.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Visual presentation
Theme: Transformation