Never have I ever…explore my backyard! A biodiversity educational toolkit for everyone and (almost) everywhere

A literature review of more than 70 articles on Biodiversity Education reveal certain trends that highlight critical issues that educational research may handle. For example, most studies have a strong didactic connotation and education seems to be meant as outreach and dissemination activities. Even if the audience reached by the studies considered is broad (from kids to adults), Biodiversity Education (Saito, 2013) is mostly conceived "one-way" awareness-raising and information initiatives, and less often experiential long-term involvement. The above seems to be at odds with some of the evidence from studies of Ecological education (Mortari, 2020) which shows that immersive and experiential encounter with the environment can foster a deep connection with the world in which individuals are asked to take responsibility towards places. Towards exploration it is possible to develop respectful, empathic and sustainable attitudes which allow each one to feel part of the planet, and not outsiders of something to be exploited: a core attitude of understanding the importance of biodiversity too. In order to fill this gap, a research group of the Department of Human Sciences for Education, in collaboration with the Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences of the University of Milano-Bicocca, designed and implemented a toolkit to promote outdoor explorations aimed at knowing and valuing biodiversity. The poster will present the kit and the first results of the educational activities that have been promoted: a material-reflective experience (Guerra, 2019) that aims to observe, describe, look for relationships and questioning, through an immersive occasion that triggers the desire to learn more.