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Cited by 4Animal and Plant Science EducationPro-Environmental Behavior and AttitudesScience Education and Pedagogy

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Tasting to preserve: An educational activity to promote children’s positive attitudes towards intraspecific diversity conservation

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Pessoa, Patrícia, Aboim, Sara, Afonso, Lisa, Lopes, J. Bernardino, Sá-Pinto, Xana·2024·PLOS ONE
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0285649PMC PMC10781109

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Abstract

On the edge of causing the sixth big mass extinction event, the development of positive attitudes towards the conservation of intraspecific diversity from early ages is essential to overcome the biodiversity crisis we currently face. However, there is no information available on elementary school students’ attitudes toward intraspecific diversity conservation nor is there a framework available to perform such analysis. For this study we designed, implemented, and evaluated an educational activity planned for third graders (8 to 13 years old) to explore the intraspecific diversity of vegetables and promote healthy eating habits. Additionally, a framework was developed to evaluate students’ attitudes towards intraspecific diversity conservation and applied to semi-structured interviews conducted with students before and after engaging in the educational activity. In this paper we present a reliable framework, developed aligned with the ABC model of attitudes, based on literature, and adapted to elementary school students’ responses, to evaluate students’ attitudes toward intraspecific diversity. Our results show that, before the educational activity, most students choose a non-biodiverse option, justifying this choice with the affective component of attitudes: mostly emotional factors but also aesthetic and social/cultural factors. After the educational activity, we observed a significant increase in the frequency of students that choose the biodiverse option and that justified it with the cognitive component of attitudes: mainly with biology and health knowledge factors, but also with economic and ethical knowledge factors. Our findings support the positive impact of educational activities that explore vegetable varieties on students’ attitudes toward intraspecific diversity conservation. This activity may also be used to foster education for sustainability and address socioscientific issues aligned with diverse sustainable development goals.

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Figures

Fig 1 Example of the bean varieties placed in the seven bag options.
Fig 1 Example of the bean varieties placed in the seven bag options.CC BY · PubMed Central
Fig 2 Schematic of the links established between the ABC model of attitude and the structure of students’ answers to the interview.
Fig 2 Schematic of the links established between the ABC model of attitude and the structure of students’ answers to the interview.CC BY · PubMed Central
Fig 3 Frequencies of students’ answers assigned to each factor in pre- and post-test according to bag choice. The light green bars indicate the students of the target group who chose the biodiverse bag in the pre-test (BiodivPre). Dark green bars indicate the students of the target group who chose the biodiverse bag in the post-test (BiodivPost). Light orange bars indicate the students of the target group who chose the bags with one variety in the pre-test (OneDivPre). Dark orange bars indicate the students of the target group who chose the bags with one variety in the post-test (OneDivPost).
Fig 3 Frequencies of students’ answers assigned to each factor in pre- and post-test according to bag choice. The light green bars indicate the students of the target group who chose the biodiverse bag in the pre-test (BiodivPre). Dark green bars indicate the students of the target group who chose the biodiverse bag in the post-test (BiodivPost). Light orange bars indicate the students of the target group who chose the bags with one variety in the pre-test (OneDivPre). Dark orange bars indicate the students of the target group who chose the bags with one variety in the post-test (OneDivPost).CC BY · PubMed Central
Fig 4 Difference between the absolute frequencies of students’ answers assigned to each factor in the pre- and post-test according to change or non-change in behavioral intention. Yellow bars indicate the students who chose a bag with only one variety in the pre- and post-test (OneDivPre-OneDivPost). Blue bars indicate the students who chose the biodiverse bag in the pre- and post-test (BiodivPre-BiodivPost). Green bars indicate the students who chose a bag with only one variety in the pre-test and the biodiverse bag in the post-test (OneDivPre-BiodivPost).
Fig 4 Difference between the absolute frequencies of students’ answers assigned to each factor in the pre- and post-test according to change or non-change in behavioral intention. Yellow bars indicate the students who chose a bag with only one variety in the pre- and post-test (OneDivPre-OneDivPost). Blue bars indicate the students who chose the biodiverse bag in the pre- and post-test (BiodivPre-BiodivPost). Green bars indicate the students who chose a bag with only one variety in the pre-test and the biodiverse bag in the post-test (OneDivPre-BiodivPost).CC BY · PubMed Central

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Metadata

Authors
Pessoa, P., Aboim, S., Afonso, L., Lopes, J. B., & Sá-Pinto, X.
Affiliations
  • University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (PT)
  • Centro de Investigação e Inovação em Educação (PT)
  • Universidade do Porto (PT)
Corresponding author
  • Pessoa, Patrícia
  • Aboim, Sara
  • Afonso, Lisa
  • Lopes, J. Bernardino
ORCID
Venue
PLOS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Published
2024-01-10
Volume
19
Issue
1
Pages
e0285649
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0285649
PMC
PMC10781109
OpenAlex
W4390693787
Cited by
4
References
5
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2024: 3
FWCI
1.90
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (2020.05634.BD, UIDB/00194/2020)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Education › Animal and Plant Science Education
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Pro-Environmental Behavior and Attitudes
  • Social Sciences › Education › Science Education and Pedagogy
Keywords
intraspecific variation, biodiversity conservation, children's attitudes, educational activities, vegetable varieties, healthy eating habits, ABC model of attitudes, elementary school students, sustainability education, socioscientific issues, biodiversity crisis
MeSH terms
Optimism, Adolescent, Child, Educational Status, Emotions, Humans, Students, Vegetables, Biodiversity

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Tasting to preserve: An educational activity to promote children’s positive attitudes towards intraspecific diversity conservation. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1371/journal.pone.0285649
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Pessoa, P., Aboim, S., Afonso, L., Lopes, J. B., & Sá-Pinto, X. (2024). Tasting to preserve: An educational activity to promote children’s positive attitudes towards intraspecific diversity conservation. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285649