The effects of a seaside environmental education program for preschool children as seen in the contents of before-and-after drawings

In this study, an environmental education program for preschool children was conducted at the seaside, and its effects were evaluated by examining pictures of marine environments drawn by the children before and after the program. The purpose of the education program was to heighten children’s levels of interest in the sea, encourage them to perceive the seaside as a space for play, and increase their familiarity with it. When the children’s pictures drawn before and after the program are compared, the most striking difference is whether or not people are included in the picture. Of the 16 kids who drew both pictures, only one put a person in the picture before the program, but this increased to six afterward, and five of these depicted “sea animals and me” together. There was also one who drew “sea animals, my friends, and me,” and another who drew a four-panel comic strip telling a story. In addition, eight of the 16 children drew living things small and weakly beforehand, but more powerfully and dynamically afterward. As we have seen, the hands-on seaside experience during this education program acted on five senses and caused a change in their internal mental models. It also enabled them to perceive a connection between the sea and themselves, and in some cases to understand and express the relationship between human beings and the sea and between other children and themselves. In future studies, we intend to increase the number of case studies of this type of program.