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Makale Özeti:
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“Non-native organisms are a major threat to biodiversity”. This statement is often made by
biologists, but general conclusions cannot be drawn easily because of contradictory
evidence. To introduce pupils aged 11-14 years to this topic, we employed an educational
program dealing with non-native animals in Central Europe. The pupils took part in a
lesson giving general information about the topic, followed by a species identification quiz.
Attitude, emotions and state of knowledge of each pupil were surveyed throughout the
program using standardized questionnaires (pre-/post- and follow up tests). One week after
the first lesson, a field trip followed, focusing on one out of two non-native bird species in
the city of Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The first species was the Ringnecked
Parakeet (Psittacula krameri) from the Indian subcontinent, and the second species
was the East Asian Swan goose (Anser cygnoides). Life history information was delivered
through a teacher and own observations during the excursions and after four weeks, the
newly gained knowledge was tested in a third lesson. The “goose group” scored higher in
goose-related questions, whereas the “parakeet-group” scored higher in their topic. The
most impressive aspect of the whole program was, that the pupils rated the field trip per se
as highest, and secondly, learning about unfamiliar species. Interestingly, the general
attitude towards non-native species did not change as a result of this educational
intervention.
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