Outdoor Science Education and Child Well-being in Primary Schools: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial on Learning, Connection to Nature, Eco-anxiety, and Stress

Outdoor Science Education and Child Well-being in Primary Schools: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial on Learning, Connection to Nature, Eco-anxiety, and Stress

The goal of this randomized controlled trial is to learn if an outdoor science education intervention can improve primary school students' learning and well-being when compared to an indoor classroom-based science education intervention. The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Will students who engage in outdoor science learning produce higher-quality observations of living organisms than students who receive instruction exclusively in an indoor, classroom-based context, when both groups are invited to make observations in an unfamiliar natural environment?
• Does an outdoor education intervention embedded within the science curriculum contribute to children's connection to nature, eco-anxiety and stress?

Participants will:

• Receive a science education intervention 2h/week for a total of 5 weeks, either indoors or outdoors
• Answer questionnaires before and after the intervention
• Participate in a field day-trip after the intervention where they will be asked to observe living organisms.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Primary schools need to have a deprivation index equal to or superior to 1 (with 10 being the maximum) and be located in Montreal, Longueuil or Laval (QC).
• Teachers have to show some interest in outdoor education but are not obliged to have already done some before in order to be included.
• Only 5th and 6th grade teachers are included.
• Primary schools with two teachers interested in participating in the project.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Alternative schools or those welcoming recently arrived non-Francophone students are not included.