Getting hands‐on with hedges—Does experiential engagement in plant science experiments affect secondary school pupils' environmental perceptions?

Societal Impact Statement In towns and cities, vegetation growing around streets and buildings can lessen the risks posed by extreme heat, rainfall and poor air quality. However, the urban public (and particularly, youth) have limited awareness of these environmental benefits. Our study engaged 14–15‐year‐old school pupils in online and in‐person learning interventions to enhance their awareness of the environmental benefits of hedges and assess impacts on their attitudes and intentions. We show that enhancing hands‐on learning opportunities exploring how greenery regulates local environments can shift pupils' perceptions about the value of plants. Such educational activities are increasingly important for today's young people, who need knowledge and understanding to help them adapt to our changing climate. Summary Increasing green infrastructure in cities has the potential to mitigate some of the negative impacts of air pollution and climate change on local population health, but this is currently under‐recognised. Urban youth are particularly vulnerable to poor environmental quality but can limit this by engaging in actions that protect and increase green infrastructure near where they live. This paper reports the findings of a preliminary study that assessed the impact of hands‐on and online green infrastructure learning interventions on environmental awareness and behavioural intentions amongst secondary school pupils in the United Kingdom. The study also assessed the influence of prior gardening experience on their environmental attitudes. We used a pretest, posttest quasi‐experimental research design and statistically analysed the resulting data sets. Our findings suggest a combination of online and hands‐on learning interventions can effectively shift the perceived efficacy of green infrastructure adaptations, whereas stand‐alone online interventions may be less effective. Importantly, they also indicate that gardening experience is associated with pro‐environmental attitudes in young people, and plant‐related learning interventions within schools may particularly influence pupils who have not experienced gardening outside of school.