Short- and long-term outreach at the zoo: cognitive learning about marine ecological and conservational issues

Abstract

Although zoos envision themselves as environmental education institutions and governmental policies require that students become environmentally responsible citizens, it is surprising, that little research is done with regard to school field trips to the zoo. Many students are not aware that their everyday life affects marine environments that may enhance through spatially disconnection from marine ecosystems. A zoo field trip may overcome this disconnection. Considering knowledge as prerequisite for environmental attitudes and behavior, our study focused on cognitive learning of high school students at an instructional zoo field trip about marine ecology and conservation, by applying two cooperative learning settings. The study followed a quasi-experimental design, applying multiple-choice pre-post-retention tests. The results show satisfying short- and long-term knowledge achievement. Our cooperative learning settings seems to be a suitable approach for zoo field trips to facilitate a satisfying cognitive outcome concerning marine ecology and conservational issues.

Keywords:

• marine mammals
• environmental education
• jigsaw
• learning at workstations
• adolescents

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the support of the Tiergarten Nuremberg, Germany, with special thanks to Barbara Reinhard and Thorsten Krist. We thank all the teachers and students who participated in our study and especially Angelika Weiß-Merklein and Christina Bogner.