The effect of nature school activities on middle school students' awareness of nature and its elements

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of nature school activities developed for 6th-grade middle school students on their levels of nature awareness. The study was conducted during the 2023–2024 academic year with a total of 64 middle school students, using a single-group pretest–posttest quasi-experimental design. Data were collected through the Nature Awareness Scale and the Nature Elements Awareness Test developed by Kiraz (2016). Following the pretest administration, students were provided with a learning environment in which they could interact directly with nature and participate in 17 nature-based activities encompassing both biotic and abiotic elements. These activities were designed to enhance students' awareness of nature. After completing the activities, the same measurement tools were administered again. In the data analysis process, the normality of the score distributions obtained from the measurement tools was assessed using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov and Shapiro–Wilk tests, and it was determined that the assumptions for parametric tests were met. The paired samples t-test was employed to examine whether there was a statistically significant difference between pretest and posttest scores within the same group. To assess the practical significance of the differences, the effect size coefficient (Cohen's d) proposed by Cohen (1988) was calculated and interpreted. Additionally, participants were grouped according to settlement type, parental education levels, income status, and participation in environmental activities. For these comparisons, Levene's test was used to check the homogeneity of variances, followed by independent samples t-tests. The findings of the study revealed that the nature school activities led to a significant increase in students' levels of nature awareness, with effect sizes ranging from moderate to high. These results suggest that nature-based learning approaches can be effective in enhancing students' awareness of nature and its elements.