Don’t Know Much about Bumblebees?—A Study about Secondary School Students’ Knowledge and Attitude Shows Educational Demand

Abstract

Many insects are threatened with extinction, which in the case of pollinating insects could lead to declining pollination services and reduced ecosystem biodiversity. This necessitates rethinking how we deal with nature in general. Schools are ideal places in which to instill a willingness to behave in an environmentally-friendly way. Whereas scientific studies and school textbooks stress the importance of honeybees as pollinators, the role of bumblebees is either underestimated or neglected. The aim of this study was to provide information concerning student knowledge and attitudes, which are important factors of an individual’s environmental awareness. A questionnaire with closed and open questions was developed, which also included drawing and species identification tasks. We surveyed 870 German secondary school students between 9 and 20 years of age. Our results indicate limited knowledge of bumblebees by students of all grades. Knowledge increased with higher grades but only with a small effect size. The attitude of students towards bumblebees was generally positive; however, this positivity declined with increasing grade of the participants. This correlation also had a small effect size. Our results are discussed, with a particular focus on future educational demand.

Crop Pollination in Small-Scale Agriculture in Tanzania: Household Dependence, Awareness and Conservation

“…Pests, fertilizers, and lack of good quality seeds were reported as the main pressing problems leading to decline in agriculture production. The level of education or type of crops grown did not seem to play a role in pollination awareness as reported by other studies [61][62][63]. The few farmers aware of pollinators seemed to have acquired this information from agriculture training programs or from other farmers.…”

Socio‐psychological factors, beyond knowledge, predict people’s engagement in pollinator conservation

“…gardens, allotments and spaces where they work or volunteer) and their perceptions drive the management of public spaces, which collectively span large and ubiquitous areas with a substantial capacity to support pollinators (Baldock et al., 2019). In recent years, there have been many public campaigns and newspaper articles about pollinators (see Appendix S1), and available evidence from Europe and North America suggests that people have reasonable levels of knowledge about, and generally positive attitudes towards, them (Schönfelder & Bogner, 2017; Sieg et al., 2018; Silva & Minor, 2017; Wignall et al., 2019). For example, a European public consultation with 67,000 responses showed that most respondents considered themselves to be well informed about pollinators, found pollinator declines alarming and felt significantly affected by pollinator declines (European Commission, 2018).…”

“…For example, a European public consultation with 67,000 responses showed that most respondents considered themselves to be well informed about pollinators, found pollinator declines alarming and felt significantly affected by pollinator declines (European Commission, 2018). Furthermore, studies show that attitudes towards pollinators are positively related to knowledge and benefit from education (Bhattacharyya et al., 2017; Penn et al., 2018; Schönfelder & Bogner, 2018; Sieg et al., 2018; Silva & Minor, 2017; Toomey & Domroese, 2013). There is some indication that this knowledge is matched by an intention to protect pollinators, for example participants in a UK study were willing to pay an average of £43/household/year (£842 million/year nationally) for a policy to protect bees (Mwebaze et al., 2018).…”

Examining the public's awareness of bee (Hymenoptera: Apoidae: Anthophila) conservation in Canada

“…This may be surprising as typically the general public views invertebrates, particularly arthropods, with fear and disgust (Kellert, 1993). However, Sieg, Teibtner, and Dreesmann (2018) found that although general knowledge of bumblebees amongst German secondary students was relatively low, their attitudes were generally positive. O'Hara (2012) found that both the majority of residents of a neighborhood in Guelph, Ontario and participants in gardening and pollinator‐themed organizations in that same city felt that there were no (63% and 61%) or only slight (37% for both) threats from bees, and that bees were extremely (83% and 77%) or very important (10% and 17%) to humans, respectively.…”