June 21st, 2017 | RESEARCH
Zoos and aquariums aim to achieve lasting impact on their public audiences’ awareness of biodiversity, its value, and the steps they can take to conserve it. Here, we evaluate the long-term educational impact of visits to zoos and aquariums on biodiversity understanding and knowledge of actions to help protect biodiversity. A minimum of two years after completing a repeated-measures survey before and after visiting a zoo or aquarium, the same participants were invited to take part in a follow-up online survey. Despite the small number of respondents (n = 161), our study may still represent the best available quantitative evidence pertaining to zoo and aquarium visits’ long-term educational impact. We found that improvements in respondents’ biodiversity understanding from pre- to post-visit leveled off, staying unchanged in the follow-up survey. In contrast, the improved knowledge of actions to help protect biodiversity from pre- to post-visit showed further improvement from post-visit to delayed post-visit follow-up survey. These results suggest that the immediate positive effects of a zoo or aquarium visit on biodiversity-related learning outcomes may be long lasting and even help lay the groundwork for further improvements over an extended period of time following the visit.
Document
Quantifying-the-Long-Term-Impact-of-Zoo-and-Aquarium-Visits-on-Biodiversity-Related.pdf
Team Members
Eric Jensen, Author, University of WarwickAndrew Moss, Author, Chester Zoo
Markus Gusset, Author, World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA)
Citation
Identifier Type: DOI
Identifier: 10.1002/zoo.21372
Publication: Zoo Biology
Volume: 36
Number: 4
Page(s): 294-297
Related URLs
Tags
Audience: Evaluators | General Public | Learning Researchers | Museum | ISE Professionals
Discipline: Ecology | forestry | agriculture | Life science
Resource Type: Peer-reviewed article | Research | Research Products
Environment Type: Aquarium and Zoo Exhibits | Aquarium and Zoo Programs