Since November 2024, the Biodiversity Education and Awareness Team (BEAT) has been leading a national experimentation within the framework of the dissemination activities of Spoke 7 of the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC). The research project experiments a simple yet innovative methodological toolkit, based on the use of paper beaks, designed to explore, discover and connect children, young people and adults with biodiversity through an immersive, continuous, and place-based approach.

The experimentation involves 50 educational services and organizations across nine Italian regions (Abruzzo, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardia, Puglia, Toscana, Veneto), engaging around 600 participants from early childhood settings to university environments. Thanks to this wide participation, the project is testing the toolkit in highly diverse educational and geographical contexts, exploring its potential on a national scale.

After initial training sessions about the methodological approach and the different documentation strategies that can be implemented, each service began the direct experimentation, accompanied by monthly online group meetings to reflect on and monitor their experience. Participants are documenting and gathering their materials through a dedicated repository, collecting observations, reflections, and questions that emerge during the explorations, both of those who accompany the exploration and of those who explore.

This ongoing and shared research process is helping the BEAT team to trace how the toolkit activates curiosity and engagement with nature, refined observation skills and the ability to formulate complex hypotheses, using simple and accessible materials such as paper beaks. It is also offering insights into how outdoor learning practices can be enriched through experiential methods that allow individuals to choose the tools they prefer to support and document their explorations, enabling each subject to embark on personal avenues of research.

The results of this large-scale experimentation will guide future developments within the BEAT project and can contribute to broader reflections and practices around innovation in biodiversity education, highlighting the interconnectedness of local and global efforts in biodiversity conservation, as well as the importance of fostering relationships between ecosystems, communities, and individuals, valuing the active contribution of each person, starting from early childhood.