Evaluation report for Generation Green 2. Assessing the impact of nature based short courses for young people
Technical report
| Authors | Harvey, C., Holland, F. and Barnes, C. |
|---|---|
| Type | Technical report |
| Abstract | Evidence suggests that children are spending less time playing outdoors and in nature, with those from lower income and ethnic minority backgrounds having less opportunity to spend time outdoors and access green spaces. Generation Green 2 aimed to address these inequalities by offering young people opportunities to spend time in nature in beautiful natural landscapes through a mixture of multi-day residential experiences and day trips all of which aimed to support a deeper connection with the natural world. Questionnaire data was collected from the young people at three time points: Pre- and post-short course and 12 week follow up. Qualitative data was also collected from young people and the staff who worked with them. In total 941 young people completed pre and post questionnaires with 272 of these young people providing follow up data. 388 young people provided qualitative data, and 4 staff members participated in interviews. Significant short-term increases from pre- to post-short course were seen in both the day trip and residential experiences for nature connectedness, importance of looking after nature, wellbeing, connection to the night sky and inclusion of nature at night in self. Significant increases in nature connectedness, wellbeing, connection to the night sky and inclusion of nature at night in self were maintained at follow up for the residential group only. Residential experiences appear to support longer-lasting effects across all measures taken whilst day trips appear to support a more intense short-term boost. Qualitative data showed support for a deeper connection with nature with strong support for the importance of contact, beauty, emotion and compassion pathways to nature connectedness. Young people were also found to engage with nature through a wide variety of activities, were pushed out of their comfort zones, overcame challenges, learned new skills, had freedom to engage in self-led activities, developed greater appreciation of the natural world and had the opportunity for an amazing and awe-inspiring experience. These overwhelmingly positive results highlight the importance of offering such experiences to young people and for such opportunities to be offered more widely, so many more young people get to experience the benefits of outdoor nature based short trips and residential courses. |
| Keywords | Young People; Outdoor Education; Nature connectedness; night sky connectedness; residential course |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publisher | University of Derby |
| Place of publication | Derby, UK |
| Page range | 1-64 |
| Funder | DEFRA |
| File | License File Access Level Open |
| Output status | Published |
| Publication dates | |
| Online | 11 Aug 2025 |
| Publication process dates | |
| Deposited | 07 Jul 2025 |
https://repository.derby.ac.uk/item/qyw5y/evaluation-report-for-generation-green-2-assessing-the-impact-of-nature-based-short-courses-for-young-people
Download files
318
total views162
total downloads5
views this month7
downloads this month