Having fun and raising awareness: Italian students monitor airborne microplastic in school environments

Although microplastics (MP, < 5 mm) are pervasive in the atmosphere and soil, with most of their sources concentrated in urban areas, public perception on MP as an environmental issue is still confined mostly to seas and oceans. Outreach activities are thus necessary to instil individual consciousness about our role in spreading such contamination, fostering pro-environmental behaviours particularly in young people. The environmental education project «Taking microplastics into the class», carried out with Italian high school students, aimed at: (i) collecting data on MP passive deposition in school environments and (ii) raising awareness about MP contamination. First, a group of 20 students was engaged with different hands-on field-, laboratory-, and computer-based activities (i.e., clean-up, MP sampling and analysis, dataset assembly, bench-scale toxicity tests), using interactive learning methods. The outcomes of each activity were then presented through peer-to-peer learning and questionnaire surveys, assessing perception, knowledge and behaviour in 163 high school students. Our findings show how scientifically driven and well-structured educational projects are very effective in stimulating students’ knowledge acquisition, environmental awareness but also self-efficacy and transdisciplinary skills. Peer-to-peer learning was proven as a valid method to encourage sustainable and pro-environmental behaviour in young citizens. All the methodologies are detailed to help developing future targeted outreach activities about MP sources and their transport in urban environments.