Last Wednesday 21 October, GreenME reached a rather unexpected audience: Year 4 pupils at Institut-Escola Elisabets, a school in Barcelona’s El Raval neighbourhood.
Researchers Paula de-Prado Bert and Lucía Calvillo Fernández from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, organised a workshop to encourage pupils to reflect on health, their relationship with nature, and how these connections can be studied. The timing could not have been better, as the session took place during a Science class focused on ecosystems.
Paula and Lucía began by introducing themselves and explaining how they became researchers. To challenge traditional ideas of what a scientist looks like, they invited the children to imagine and draw themselves as nature investigators. Many included glasses or lab coats, but all found creative ways to bring nature into their drawings. The second part of the workshop took place in the Pati dels Tarongers, a historic public space in the neighbourhood. There, the pupils assessed the quality of the urban green space using an adapted version of a tool developed by the University of Kent as part of GreenME. Working individually or in groups, they observed features such as trees, shrubs, birds, insects, fountains and accessibility.
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The final question asked: “What would you improve about this space?” This prompted lively reflection on a place that forms part of their everyday lives. Suggestions ranged from improving the ground so they could run more easily to adding a table tennis table.
The workshop is a small example of how GreenME’s research and tools can travel beyond scientific publications and into local communities. For one day, the pupils of IE Elisabets became nature researchers themselves, and we hope they enjoyed it as much as we did.