HomeAbstract of 10th-worldcteConservation Education of Adolescents in Southern Madagascar: regular conservation club meetings impact expressed learning from field trips.

Conservation Education of Adolescents in Southern Madagascar: regular conservation club meetings impact expressed learning from field trips.

  • Jul 21, 2026
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Abstract Book of the 10th World Conference on Teaching and Education

Year: 2026

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Conservation Education of Adolescents in Southern Madagascar: regular conservation club meetings impact expressed learning from field trips.

Dr. Amber Dawn Walker-Bolton, Ramanorintsoa Fiankina Milliasse

ABSTRACT:

Field trips to see wild primates are known to be important conservation education tools for adolescents living in primate source countries. We surveyed three groups of adolescents (ages 12-18) before and after a field trip to see wild lemurs at local reserves in Madagascar. Surveys investigated whether membership in a conservation club impacted expressed learning from field trips, and adolescents were either 1) members of a conservation club for two or more years and from a town (Sampoana, n=14), or new members of a conservation club and from 2) a city (Fort Dauphin, n=21), or 3) a village (Berenty, n=14). We predicted that adolescents would learn about lemurs and conservation during the field trip, and would demonstrate this by answering more survey questions correctly and in greater detail after the trip. We further predicted that adolescents who had been members of a conservation club for at least two years (town group) would answer more survey questions correctly and in greater detail than adolescents who were new members of a conservation club (city and village groups). We found that adolescents provided fewer correct answers about lemurs but significantly more correct answers about conservation (p<0.001) in surveys completed after the trip. Adolescents who had been long-term members of a conservation club also answered significantly more survey questions correctly overall (p<0.001), and also significantly improved their number of correct responses after the trip (p<0.001) unlike the village or city respondents. We conclude that long-term membership in a conservation club prior to a field trip to see wild lemurs enhances the learning that occurs on such a trip.

Keywords: Lemurs, Field Trips, Environmental, Surveys