title: ["Let's play with the Earth": a project of environmental education for primary school children].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Raising awareness and knowledge in Pavia Public Primary School students, and indirectly in their parents, about environmental problems like waste recycling and energy saving, developing with games the concept of separate collection of rubbish; creating an environmentally conscious awareness and sense of responsibility towards sustainable behavior.
  
  
  METHODS
  The educational program lasted six months. Data collection was performed using anonymous questionnaires, administered to "treated" students at the beginning and at the end of the program. The "control" population only answered a single questionnaire at the end of the project. It was also carried out an assessment of the fallout of the project on parents, through a questionnaire at the beginning and at the end of the program. At the end of the educational intervention, a satisfaction questionnaire was administered to teachers.
  
  
  METHODS
  The enrolled population was composed of 1,358 students from 3rd, 4th and 5th classes of Public Primary Schools of the four Pavia School Districts: 938 "treated" students followed the program and 420 "controls" only answered the final questionnaire.
  
  
  METHODS
  The data concerning the pupils' knowledge are expressed in terms of frequencies: at first, we evaluated the comparison between "treated" students knowledge at the beginning and at the end of the program in each class, then we made the comparison between "treated" and "control" students at the end of the program.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The comparison of the final questionnaires ("treated" students vs "controls") revealed in "treated" students higher knowledge of terms "waste" (94.5% vs 89.0%) and "separate collection" (97.3% vs 90.7%): the differences are statistically significant. Also the practice of separate collection of rubbish is more frequent in "treated" students' families than in "control" ones (83.5% vs 71.4%, p =0.0001).The analysis of teachers' satisfaction questionnaires showed positive ratings with high average scores for each item investigated. The analysis of parents' questionnaires revealed that 99.8% of them knows the meaning and 89% practice separate collection of rubbish.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The program has proved effective in increasing students' short-term knowledge and making also families more interested in problems like waste recycling and separate collection of rubbish. The need of an awareness and environmental education campaign for the general population is apparent and the role of children, promoting knowledge and environmental behaviour changes in parents and community, has not to be underestimated.
authors: Dipartimento di Sanità Pubblica, Neuroscienze, Medicina Sperimentale e Forense, Sezione di Igiene Università degli Studi di Pavia. gallotti@unipv.it
authors: Cristina
authors: C
authors: Gallotti
authors: Paolo
authors: P
authors: Ferloni
authors: Federico
authors: F
authors: Roncarolo
authors: Marinella
authors: M
authors: Maccagni
authors: Luca
authors: L
authors: Alessi
authors: Eleonora
authors: E
authors: Scorletti
authors: Sara
authors: S
authors: Sacco
authors: Maria Teresa
authors: MT
authors: Tenconi
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004493:Education; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D012574:Schools; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D018505:Waste Management