This article presents an interdisciplinary teaching–learning sequence (TLS) about air quality for pre-service primary teachers using an organic learning garden. The design involved a curricular integration of concepts and competences about sustainability, mathematics, and science disciplines following constructivist and active learning strategies, such as problem-based learning and place-based education. In this TLS, both the topic and the learning context act as facilitators of education for sustainable development (ESD). The contents address the overarching STEM and sustainability concepts related to air pollutants, weather, and climate. Our results show that students learned about a STEM topic within a space and context that enables ESD. Several misconceptions related to air quality, weather, and statistics were identified through the evaluation of students’ initial ideas. Furthermore, students’ attitudes towards the topic of study and self-efficacy and perceived relevance of ESD improved after the implementation. These results will guide further improvements of the designed TLS, which connects STEM education and ESD as a transformative educational experience for pre-service teachers. In this sense, we conclude that such initiatives can improve pre-service primary teachers’ self-efficacy as agents of change towards sustainable development goals.

This work presents an assessment of pre-service teachers’ argumentative practice, after implementing a novel teaching-learning sequence on soil health including a citizen science programme, which was applied outdoors at the university garden. The sequence was implemented at five Spanish universities with 351 undergraduates studying Early Childhood and Primary Teacher Education. It posed a final assessment task consisting in a real-world situation that involved making decisions on science-related issues: students needed to argue whether it was possible to use a piece of land as a school garden, based on soil data provided in a variety of formats. To assess participants’ level of achievement, a rubric was specifically designed by adapting the Evidence-Explanation Continuum approach, which was applied to a subsample of 123 answers (35%). Results evidenced that the process of knowledge-building discourse from initial data to final explanations involved a series of transformations of increasing difficulty, since the percentage of students who were able to correctly accomplish them decreased a long the continuum. Including the citizen science programme promoted the development of basic aspects of scientific literacy related to interpreting data and evidence scientifically but, for students to be generally capable of drawing evidence-based conclusions, argumentation practices should be regularly included in science classes.

Studies have shed light on the idea that people who have experiences in natural settings might be more aware of the environment. Learning gardens, as outdoor contexts, might contribute to the development of students’ affective relations toward nature, pro-environmental attitudes, and protective actions; neverthless, these aspects begging to be explored. This preliminary research investigates the impact that the use of organic gardens to teach natural sciences at university has on kindergarten pre-service teachers’ (KPST) connectedness to and conceptions of nature. The research follows a pre-/post-design and it uses a mixed methods approach. A total of 74 students completed four quantitative scales (INS, CCC, LCN, and NR-6), and 66 of them an open question about the concept of nature. After the garden experience, students scored higher in all the scales, nevertheless the change was significant only for INS and CCC. The phenomenographic analysis evidenced an initial predominant static and non-social concept of nature, biased toward the most obvious biological elements. After the garden-based learning experience, more informed conceptions of nature – including notions of complexity and systemic character – increased from 7 to 19%; however, statistical comparison was not significant. In spite of the absence of concluding results, further research is required to assess the role that learning gardens may play regarding connectedness to nature and pro-environmental behaviors.