Under the 2nd year of the FiuMare collaborative project, made possible with support from Erasmus+, we developed a creative and interactive knowledge game for children and youth that gives them the opportunity to learn more about the nature and environment around them. The idea is that the knowledge game Nature Box should be an easily accessible and simple-to-implement game, for both teachers to use in school classes and families who want to use it in their free time at home, allowing them to play researcher in their own local environment. The knowledge game is now available as a PDF on our website.
Three simple steps to informal learning
The game is the result of knowledge exchange between ReMida Bologna and the Environmental Protection Association, but it also stems from our shared understanding that we take better care of things we have a connection to and are fond of. By setting up children and youth to interact with and explore nature, animals, and the environment around them through fun and creative “missions,” we hope the game can help spark curiosity and love for nature, which will be necessary for the younger generation to want to take over the baton as future environmental advocates.
For us, it made sense to create a product like the Nature Box because the game introduces a new way to communicate and learn about nature and the environment. Through three simple steps, children and youth have the opportunity to play researchers in their own local environment, where the idea is that they will study, identify, and collect things they find in the area they are in. The things they find are collected in a box/case they either already have or build themselves, becoming the Nature Box that can be used for informal learning outside the classroom. By using the game, children and youth spend time outdoors, learn about nature through physical interaction with it, and have the opportunity to create a collection of species and materials they find in their local area. By taking care of the collection in the Nature Box, the box allows continued play and learning, sharing the researcher experience with other classes or friends, and fostering further environmental engagement after the creative “missions.”
The Nature Box was developed during a workshop and knowledge exchange between ReMida and the Environmental Protection Association in Tromsø in June 2025, and consists of a PDF with a Nature Box manual, a teacher’s manual, 3 envelopes, support questions, and identity cards. We had the opportunity to test the concept we developed during a creative exhibition we set up at Tromsø Library, where children had the opportunity – using identity cards, books, and telescopes – to explore, identify, and creatively use dried plant species and materials that students had found during the Norwegian school tour on cleanup actions in the Tromsø area. This created much curiosity, engagement, and good questions among the children who participated, while also resulting in the Environmental Protection Association’s first Nature Box.
A solution for the Italian school day
The game was also used with Italian students during the FiuMare project in late summer and autumn 2025 and became an important part of the creative teaching Cristina Li Pera conducted on her school tour in Italy. The school year in Italy is planned one year in advance, which made it difficult at the beginning of the project to get Italian students to the mobile classroom and Cristina’s marine exhibition on short notice.
The Nature Box game made it possible for Cristina to, to some extent, bring parts of the students’ local environment to their school and created space for the students to learn about their nature informally, even if they could not leave the school. The game was also a success among the students who had the opportunity to participate in both the teaching program and beach cleanups during the FiuMare tour 2025, as the game contributed to the students gaining a deeper understanding of the connection between marine litter, human impact on nature, its consequences, and how they themselves can be active participants and help solve the global plastic and litter problem.
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