With your child's first interaction with nature, you will easily notice his curiosity about everything around him; trees, birds, insects, grass, and the sounds of the wind caressing the branches. He is not afraid of touching all the animals or plants he meets, and he does not care about spoiling his appearance by playing in the mud that covers the soil. Can we provide something that can develop his innate passion and belonging to nature through environmental content that satisfies all that curiosity?
“Megan” was born in South Africa, which has a beautiful nature. During her childhood, she had the opportunity to spend a lot of time outdoors. She climbed mountains, went to the beaches, and spent time in camps in areas where elephants and giraffes roamed.
All of these unique experiences were an introduction to a long journey that “Megan Strauss” would take in the world of studying environmental sciences, before she decided to join the team of the “Mongabay Kids” website. It is concerned with providing environmental content for children, which is part of the “Mongabay” non-profit platform project that launches from the United States of America.
The Mongabay Kids website was launched in 2021, targeting children between the ages of 8 and 14 years. Its content ranges from simple news stories, games, comics, and other templates covering topics related to the environment and biodiversity.
Young leaders
الأكثر قراءة
Speaking to “Green in Arabic”, the site's editor, “Megan Strauss”, tells how the idea of launching the project began, saying: “We wanted to create a free and engaging platform that informs young people, sparks curiosity about the natural world, and models environmentally responsible behavior.”
She continued: “We hope our readers go on to become environmental leaders in their homes, their communities, or even on the global stage.”
“Megan” believes that not only is environmental education important in conjunction with climate and biodiversity-related crises, but connection with nature is fundamental to children's physical, mental and emotional health.
Content diversity
Speaking to “Green in Arabic”, “Megan” explains that initial feedback suggests that kids enjoy short articles with videos, illustrated or interactive stories, art activities and interactive puzzles & games. but they point to the diversity of content provided by the site, describing dealing with an audience between the ages of eight and fourteenth as a “tricky” matter.
She noted that there are many things to be considered, as they have different degrees of reading ability and enjoy different levels of digital experience. The younger audience category gets attracted by cartoon characters, while Longer subjects and simplified interviews with experts attract older ones who can navigate the website independently.
But, like adults, young people have different tastes and they also vary in abilities, inclinations, and in the circumstances surrounding them. She continued, saying: “Some kids love cats, while others love frogs... Some are visual learners, some learn by reading, others need to get outside and hug a tree or touch the soil.”
Before joining the team, “Megan” experienced motherhood and closely lived the relationship of kids with the surrounding environment. This contributed to her decision to work on targeted content for those audiences. She said: “After becoming a parent to two curious kids, I decided to merge my background in science and conservation with a long-standing interest in illustration and children’s media.. My kids inspire me to be more alert, see things through a different lens, and be open to new ideas.”
Financing.. A constant challenge
Speaking to us, “Megan” pointed out that there are challenges facing the team to create attractive, high-quality content, but with a limited budget, adding that the matter can be partially overcome through several methods, most notably the use of a network of volunteer contributors, or by establishing partnerships with environmental groups that wish to publish the content you prepare, as well as launch funding campaigns.
One of the foundation's partnerships was with the “Anne Dagg Foundation” which is a non-profit dedicated to giraffe conservation. It launched an environmental club for kids aged 7 to 17 years.
Through this partnership, Mongabay worked directly with kids who were members of the club, and contributed to creating giraffe content.
Lack of content directed to kids
“Megan” believes that the reason for the scarcity of content directed to children regarding climate change and the environment is that adults consider this content difficult and heavy. Therefore, they believe that kids cannot deal with it, at a time when empowering them and providing them with the necessary information is one of the most important things they can do to help us confront the climate crisis.
In her opinion, adults underestimate kids' abilities and curiosity about nature, and their ways of exploring it; “Children want to get muddy, turn over rocks, pick up insects, and solve problems.” So, they must be provided at that age with the knowledge and tools that will enable them to live in an environmentally friendly way.
The advice that the site editor insisted on for journalists working in this type of content is to involve young people in the content production process, by asking them questions about topics that interest them. "They are the best critics... "They're brilliant at telling us what they like."
