Rewilding young urban minds for regenerative futures

Abstract

This project explores how engagement with mycelium-receptive living artefacts can contribute to ecological literacy and nature connectedness in children. Within the scope of this project, ecological literacy serves as the foundation for exploring the potential of living artefacts to foster ecological awareness and knowledge-building, support transformative learning through place-based experiences, and help bridge the pedagogical gaps left by conventional education.

Ecological literacy refers to the ability to understand ecological systems, including how they function and interconnect. A widespread lack of such understanding is increasingly recognised as a major barrier to achieving sustainability. While ecological literacy forms the basis for well-informed, sustainable decision-making, nature connectedness is equally important for pro-environmental behaviour. However, children growing up in urban environments often lack access to nature, leading to lower ecological literacy and feeling less connected to the natural world. This disconnect is concerning, as it not only affects children’s wellbeing but also their relationship with nature and their future environmental attitudes and behaviours. Addressing this issue through nature education in primary schools is therefore crucial to raising future generations who understand, care for, and act to protect natural environments. Consequently, this project focuses on primary school children between the ages of 8 and 12. In doing so, it aims to contribute both to educational methods and tools for nature education and to academic discourse on regenerative and more-than-human design.

The project adopts a research through design approach, combining methods from material-driven and participatory design while including more-than-human perspectives. Through material explorations in multispecies contexts, it examines how biodegradable and living materials can support mycelial growth and interaction, with the broader aim of developing materials that children can safely and playfully use to create their own mycelium-receptive living artefacts. In addition, a workshop conducted with primary school children explored how nature-based learning can lead to understanding and empathy for non-human organisms. Central to the workshop was an enactment exercise in which children imagined themselves as fungi in a local park, expressing their understanding of and sensitivity towards non-human species. Insights from these activities informed the conceptualisation of an experimentation toolkit for nature education, consisting of a presentation, workbook, and shapeable composite material that enables children to shape, place, and observe their own living artefacts.

The toolkit was tested with 71 children aged 8–12. Their creations and placement decisions revealed sensitivity and empathy toward fungi and their environments, particularly when encouraged to reflect on their actions. The workshop could be independently facilitated by a teacher, demonstrating its feasibility in a real-world educational context. Findings suggest that engaging with living artefacts situated in local natural environments can strengthen ecological literacy and nurture caring relationships with non-human life. Further research is needed to measure long-term effects on ecological literacy and nature connectedness, and to refine the material properties of the mycelium-receptive composite.