Emphasizing Our Connection to the Environment: A Children's Communication Project (by Madison DeVore)


 Madison DeVore

Environmental Communication Project (2022)

For a project in an environmental communication course with Professor Huxster at Eckerd College, I crafted an interactive presentation for elementary and middle school students at Girls Inc. of Pinellas. This is an after school program for girls in the area. I presented ideas revolving around biodiversity, ecosystem services, and how humans should not be viewed as separate from the environment.

I created a google slides presentation with a kid-friendly template while utilizing simplistic language to describe more complicated topics. I split the children into groups, attempting to mix up the ages in each group in order for the older children to help guide the younger ones. Each group had a whiteboard and I encouraged them to talk to each other and express their ideas on the whiteboard, whether it be through words or pictures. At the end of the presentation, we played a game to review what they had learned and they showed that they clearly grasped the concepts we covered to some extent.

    I was shown that children can often grasp larger or more complex concepts, it is just the language we use to communicate it and the way in which we frame it that can lead to confusion. Additionally, focusing on too much jargon and specific details can come off as too difficult or monotonous for adults even, let alone children. As explained in chapter eight of Delivering a Clear Message, “The window of opportunity for engaging journalists, policymakers, and virtually everyone else is narrow…To be successful your message must be easily understood, memorable, and most important, relevant to your audience” (Baron, 106). Therefore, in order to keep the children engaged and aid in their learning process, I aimed to keep it somewhat short, memorable with group work and a game, and relevant by expressing why they should care about such environmental topics. We discussed what ecosystem services provide for us, how diversity in life helps keep a sort of balance, and how humans are an important part of the environment, rather than separate from it. I even mentioned possible environment-related jobs they could do one day if they were interested.

    Overall, I did not want this project to become a one-way mode of communication, in which I simply attempted to transfer knowledge to others. This is often referred to as the deficit model. Rather than using the deficit model, I opted for a sort of dialogue model, where I encouraged communication between myself and the children, but also between the children in small groups of four or five. This allows the children to hear a variety of perspectives and ideas, which was not only helpful for them, but for me as well. I also strived to encourage conversation through speaking and active listening in order to emphasize the importance of communication in science. Environmental communication was a topic we discussed together when I brought up careers as well. There is often a lack of formal communication requirements and training in scientific fields (Simis, Madden, Cacciatore, Yeo, 2016) and it can lead to some very harmful consequences. In order to move beyond the deficit model or overall lack of communication, it is crucial to acknowledge the problem and make others aware of it. Also, providing examples of dialogue models or other efficient forms of communication for younger generations can be beneficial as well. I believe this was successful in my case, as the majority of the children participated in the presentation and showed that they learned something.

In conclusion, my environmental communication project felt successful, because the vast majority of children participated by talking in their groups, talking in front of the entire room, drawing and writing on whiteboards, and sharing what they learned. Through two-way communication, encouraging questions, using big concepts but simple language, and making it more fun with a game, rather than a one-way lecture, the children seemingly enjoyed it and learned something new. It was a rewarding experience to share a bit of what I have learned with others and being able to emphasize important points about our connection to the environment and how significant it is to communicate that with others.


https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1KNjR0dz_dnTNPRSSovZgrxfTv2ZVCNxvoEJtSNxvbKM/edit?usp=sharing  (this is a link to my presentation, if you'd like to take a look!)


References

Baron, N. Conservation Delivering a Clear Message (Chapter 8). July-Sep 2009.

Pezzullo, P., Cox, R. (2022). Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere (edition 6). SAGE.

Simis, M. J., Madden, H., Cacciatore, M. A., & Yeo, S. K. (2016). The lure of rationality: Why does the deficit model persist in science communication? Public Understanding of Science, 25(4), 400–414. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662516629749. 

  • Google Slides with a Slidesgo template was used for the presentation itself (which is inserted at the end)

Pledged, Madison DeVore.

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