Children perception of marine environment
Children’s drawings are an innovative and powerful tool which can overcome linguistic barriers and effectively gather information on children’s perception by opening a window into their representational world. The aim of the project is to investigate how children perceive the marine environment, detect misconceptions, identify marine species that could serve as flag species for public awareness and investigate the role of culture on children’s perception of the marine environment by analysing their drawings.
Thus students of the 1st and 2nd grade of schools from different countries around the globe are asked to draw what they would like to see when they go swimming/snorkelling. So far schools from 7 countries have been involved in the study (Greece, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, South Africa, UK and Portugal) with more than 100 students participating in the project. The up-to-date results are significant, displaying high relation between the species depicted and the biodiversity of the country, while drawings of countries considered biodiversity hotspots depict significantly more marine animals.
Research team:
Anastasia Charitou, Joana Soares, Myron Papadopoulos, Georgia Chatzitheodorou, Roula Andrianopoulou, Ioannis Giovos
Publications:
OPP Children perception of the marine environment
Collaborators:
Cristina Brito, Researcher at CHAM, FCSH/NOVA
Henrique Cabral, Professor at Faculdade de Ciencias da Universidade de Lisboa
Joana Soares, Master Student at Faculdade de Ciencias da Universidade de Lisboa
Collaborations
Under the umbrella
Drawings
Project director
Ioannis Giovos: [email protected]