Without being outdoors, how will our generation ever learn to care enough about nature to become conservationists at heart? After spending several months researching the issue, our team was prepared to write a 2-part overall hypothesis to help solve this problem, and begin experimentation.
Hypothesis – If children have mentors to take them outdoors, and if a trail is built and opportunities to use it are made technology-rich and interactive, then children will be motivated to spend more time outdoors and will gain a greater appreciation of nature.
The overall hypothesis would lead into an experiment phase of the mission and would include four different investigations that could be tested, repeated, measured and copied by other communities as well.
The data collected during the survey of children, the survey of adults, and the interviews with people across generations all supported our hypothesis. We thought that previous generations spent more time outdoors than our generation, and that turned out to be correct. One interesting fact is that on average, children spent 4-6 hours per day on electronics, spent less than one hour per day outdoors, reported little interest in nature, and felt that outdoor adventure would be more interesting if electronics were involved. They were not willing to give up electronics, whether they were indoors or hiking a trail.
When asked how much time was spent outdoors, students from ages 7-12 spend less time outside than older students, averaging under one hour per day. The question would you go outside if it had to do with electronics, had the majority (+80%) choosing a positive response, which was encouraging for us because we know that hiking trails with interactive technology will be fun! Students ages 13-14 in the middle school group reported spending the most time during the day on electronics, exceeding that of the high school age students surveyed. This data refuted our hypothesis because we see older students on their phones and iPads more than students in middle school and were surprised by these results.
Hypothesis – If children have mentors to take them outdoors, and if a trail is built and opportunities to use it are made technology-rich and interactive, then children will be motivated to spend more time outdoors and will gain a greater appreciation of nature.
The overall hypothesis would lead into an experiment phase of the mission and would include four different investigations that could be tested, repeated, measured and copied by other communities as well.
The data collected during the survey of children, the survey of adults, and the interviews with people across generations all supported our hypothesis. We thought that previous generations spent more time outdoors than our generation, and that turned out to be correct. One interesting fact is that on average, children spent 4-6 hours per day on electronics, spent less than one hour per day outdoors, reported little interest in nature, and felt that outdoor adventure would be more interesting if electronics were involved. They were not willing to give up electronics, whether they were indoors or hiking a trail.
When asked how much time was spent outdoors, students from ages 7-12 spend less time outside than older students, averaging under one hour per day. The question would you go outside if it had to do with electronics, had the majority (+80%) choosing a positive response, which was encouraging for us because we know that hiking trails with interactive technology will be fun! Students ages 13-14 in the middle school group reported spending the most time during the day on electronics, exceeding that of the high school age students surveyed. This data refuted our hypothesis because we see older students on their phones and iPads more than students in middle school and were surprised by these results.
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