Tasting to preserve: An educational activity to promote children's positive attitudes towards intraspecific diversity conservation.

On the edge of causing the sixth big mass extinction event, the development of positive attitudes towards the conservation of intraspecific diversity from early ages is essential to overcome the biodiversity crisis we currently face. However, there is no information available on elementary school students' attitudes toward intraspecific diversity conservation nor is there a framework available to perform such analysis. For this study we designed, implemented, and evaluated an educational activity planned for third graders (8 to 13 years old) to explore the intraspecific diversity of vegetables and promote healthy eating habits.

The taste of biodiversity: science and sensory education with different varieties of a vegetable to promote acceptance among primary school children.

Objective: To determine the impact of an educational programme for primary schools that explored the biodiversity of tomato, by promoting science and sensory education with three distinct varieties of it, in the acceptance of vegetables.

Design: A randomised controlled study in which children were exposed to the educational programme (intervention group) or remained in the class, as usual (control group). The educational programme consisted of three sessions where children explained the observed differences between the three varieties of tomato and individual perceptions of their flavours based on sensory-based food education and by planning and implementing experiments to explain those differences.