Giants of the Lagoon Methodology and Resources - Citizen Science and Environmental Education Programme

Giants of the Lagoon (IGL) is a replicable, interdisciplinary citizen science and environmental education programme initiated by We are here Venice ETS (WahV) in collaboration with Wageningen University, the Giancarlo Ligabue Natural History Museum and developed within the framework of WaterLANDS. It is coordinated by WahV and a network of educators, scientists, artists and guides.

Recognising young people as a critical constituency for long-term environmental stewardship, the programme targets first-year secondary school pupils, embedding lagoon knowledge within formal education while extending learning into public space and civic life.

Through embodied observation across ecological scales (from the landscape to the micro-level), child-friendly citizen science tools, arts-based methodologies (drawing, storytelling, graphic design, games) and public engagement, Giants of the Lagoon has successfully reconnected hundreds of young people with the Venice Lagoon and its salt marsh ecosystems. The programme has strengthened wetland literacy, ecological awareness and systems thinking in students, while also creating meaningful links between schools, communities, scientists and restoration practitioners.

The programme combines a structured interdisciplinary methodology, adaptable educational resources, and an evaluation framework that provide a practical model for replication. This methodology can be used by environmental organisations, restoration practitioners, and educators to deliver a participatory environmental education and citizen science programme. While originally developed in the Venice Lagoon, the approach can be transferred to other wetlands, coastal environments and ecological restoration contexts across Europe by adapting local ecological content while retaining the core learning and engagement process.

Methodology

The methodology is articulated across the school year and integrates classroom learning, independent observation, fieldwork, play and public engagement:

Preparatory Phase

Training sessions for the teachers and guides with experts in lagoon morphology, ornithology and environmental interpretation.
Shared visual language through professionally designed slides and materials.
Alignment between scientific content, pedagogical goals, and creative tools.

Classroom Phase

Two structured lessons with pupils introducing lagoon formation, biodiversity, salt marsh dynamics, and environmental pressures.
Distribution of a purpose-designed field notebook, combining scientific reference material, visual prompts, and space for notes and drawings.
Introduction of observation exercises focusing on everyday environments (e.g. a plant along the route to school).

Citizen Science Assessment

Completion of “before and after” worksheets through exercises assessing the normative, expressive, and cognitive dimensions of the visions of nature.
Assessing this prior to the field excursion, and then after, captures shifts in perception, scale awareness, and ecological complexity in pupils and generates qualitative data and visual material.

Field Excursion

Full-day guided exploration of salt marshes, agricultural land, and beach environments in the Northern Lagoon.
Small-group observations and citizen science activities using defined ground plots, magnifying glasses, binoculars, and notebooks.
Collective synthesis through creative group presentations which include the use of interviews, songs, and riddles, to share the experience with their classmates.
Low-impact boat transport enabling observation of birds and marshes from the water.

Experiential Learning through Play

Pupils helped to test the “barena game”, an artist-designed educational game simulating salt marsh dynamics and decision-making.
Reinforcement of systems thinking through embodied and social learning.

Public Dissemination and Urban Engagement

The programme culminates in a final outdoor event in a public urban space in Venice, where students’ families and the public are invited to view the student’s presentations, participate in games, an urban treasure hunt, and guided walks.
Public presentations by pupils, provide an opportunity for reflection on their learning experiences, highlight the need to improve the health of Venice’s lagoon system, and share these learnings with the public.
Artistic poster campaign to advertise the event used pupils’ drawings and reflections.

Reflection, feedback, and iterative development

Before and after assessment sheets to identify changes in pupils’ perceptions.
Structured feedback sessions with teachers and guides help to identify best practices and areas for improvement, which feeds into an iterative process, continuously developing the programme design, tools and implementation.

Tools

The programme has produced three tools that can be adapted or reused in other contexts:

“Before and after sheets” for recording changes in the pupils' perception of the lagoon before and after the excursion.
Slides for the guides during the training course, classroom presentations, and interactive games.
Field notebooks for recording information during the excursions.

Before and After Assessment Sheets (Italian)Field Notebook (Italian)Interactive game (Italian)

Key Findings

A shift in pupils' understanding and perception of the lagoon evolved from a focus on boats, fish and more obvious elements towards understanding salt marshes as key environments, with a variety of smaller organisms (molluscs, crustaceans, insects), and the interrelationships between plants, animals, tides and human activity.
Pupil’s improved pupils’ ecological literacy, from expanding their vocabulary and understanding of environmental pressures, to gaining skills in observation and species identification.
Strong enthusiasm, increased confidence, and long-term recall of content particularly when multiple modes of expression (drawing, speaking, play) were offered.
Field observation and boat-based exploration were repeatedly identified as transformative, especially for pupils with limited prior exposure to lagoon environments.
This programme informed a publication on school children’s shifting visions of nature to evaluate the effectiveness of environmental education. Children with a nature-centred perspective of the natural world became more environmentally aware and “connected to” the lagoon after the field excursion, suggested by increases in the use of environmental elements to describe the lagoon, words associated with positive emotions, and the recognition of environment-friendly activities.

Novelty in approach

The novelty of the Giants of the Lagoon approach lies in the integration of scientific assessment, arts-based practice, and civic engagement into a single, coherent educational model. Key innovative aspects include:

Children’s drawings and imaginative responses are treated as valid data for understanding environmental perception and learning processes.
The deliberate movement between macro (landscape) and micro (soil organisms) perspectives fosters systems thinking rather than isolated knowledge acquisition.
The sustained visual identity across years strengthens recognition, memory and emotional connection to the lagoon.
Learning outcomes are returned to the city through posters, events and walks, positioning pupils as knowledge holders and communicators.
Replicability: The methodology is deliberately designed to be transferable to other lagoon and wetland contexts, supporting WaterLANDS’ wider ambitions.

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