A hackathon as a promoter of environmental citizenship among fifth-grade students—the attitudes of students, educators, ornithologists, and people working in high-tech

Abstract

This qualitative study examined the perceptions of 42 fifth-grade students (ages 11–12) along with 8 staff members, 9 ornithologists, and 10 high-tech experts who participated in a hackathon event. This was the culmination of a learning process designed to find environmental, technological, and humane solutions to the competition between the Lesser Kestrel (native species) and the Myna (invasive species). Using three sources of data gathering—analyses of drawings, an open questionnaire, and focus group interviews—the study examined to what extent, if any, a hackathon, as a pedagogical tool, might promote environmental citizenship principles among fifth graders according to Berkowitz’s components of environmental citizenship. The findings show that the students expanded their ecological literacy, discussed civic literacy characteristics, adopted environmental values and their self-efficacy to act to find an environmental, technological, and human solution to the competition between the Lesser Kestrel-Myna interaction. Therefore, it can be said that the educational program and the hackathon succeeded in promoting environmental citizenship according to Berkowitz’s components.