DOI: 10.5061/dryad.8931zcrx1
title: Adders are Amazing project evaluation of attitudes and connectedness to nature

description: Adder (Vipera berus) populations are experiencing declines in many
 countries, including the UK. Perceptions of adders and other venomous
 snakes are generally negative, making conservation of these species a
 challenge, and persecution remains within the top five perceived causes
 for adder declines in the UK. Improved understanding and attitudes are
 needed to support current conservation efforts. However, ensuring these
 positive attitudes continue into the future relies on addressing
 children’s loss of connection to nature, and intervention at this early
 attitude-formation stage can be crucial for traditionally ‘unpopular’
 species, such as snakes. An adder-focussed public-engagement project,
 Adders are Amazing!, was carried out in Pembrokeshire, UK, in 2018–19 to
 improve understanding and attitudes towards adders using a blended
 science-creative arts approach. The project included half-day primary
 school-based workshops to inform 111 pupils aged 8 to 11 about adder
 ecology, alongside creative art experiences. Questionnaires were used to
 measure the children’s attitudes towards adders and their nature
 connectedness both before and after the workshops and these were compared
 with equivalent questionnaires carried out at a control school (57 pupils)
 where no workshops were conducted.  The project demonstrated that
 engagement that blends both art and science can significantly change
 attitudes towards adders without any direct contact with the animals
 themselves; specifically, participants’ scores for ‘Wonder’, ‘Learning
 Interest’ and ‘Conservation Concern’ increased. The workshops also
 significantly increased measures of the children’s general connectedness
 to nature (specifically, ‘Enjoyment of Nature’ and ‘Responsibility for
 Nature’). We recommend conservation bodies focus on, and not shy away
 from, so-called ‘unpopular’ species, to promote understanding and
 acceptance of these species and support their conservation. Blended
 arts-science initiatives, which can be easily adapted to suit a wide range
 of species and the artistic practices of local communities, are an
 effective way to achieve this.
description: Data was collected using a questionnaire administered before and
 several months following an art/science-based intervention. The
 intervention's primary aim was to improve attitudes to the adder
 (<em>Vipera berus</em>), Britain's only venomous snake.
 Three schools participated, two were part of the intervention, and the
 other acted as a control school. Questionnaires were
 summed by hand and the totals for attitudes towards adders, and
 connectedness to nature were inputted into Excel. Statistical analysis was
 completed on SPSS v20.
description: # Adders are Amazing project evaluation of attitudes and connectedness to
 nature
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8931zcrx1](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8931zcrx1) Give a brief summary of dataset contents, contextualized in experimental procedures and results. ## Description of the data and file structure This data set was collected as a pre-post intervention design, comparing schools which received the intervention (coded as 1) against a school which did not (coded as 2). The questionnaire collected the following demographic variables; Age, Age Group, Gender, School, Conexp (1 intervention, and 2 control), Class, and Teacher. * **Pnum**: This was the number allocated to the participant allowing for anonymisation. * **Age**: was reported to the nearest complete whole year. For example, eight years and 10 months was recorded as 8 * **Age group**: simply coded age as follows, 8 as 1; 9 as 2, 10 as 3, etc. * **Gender**: was an open question. However only 'boy' or 'girl', 'male' or 'female' was reported. These were recorded as male = 1; and female = 2. * **School**: Three schools were recruited for data collection. Two received the intervention, one did not. The control school was coded as 1, and the intervention schools as 2 and 3. * **Conexp**: This further coded the schools as 1 for control, and 2 (combination of 2 and 3 from the previous variable) for experimental. * **Class**: This represented the class students were in at a particular school. This was largely based on age, although some classes could be a mix of ages. For example, Class could include age 8 and 9. * **Teacher**: Several different teachers were included in the project. Each teacher was given an individual code. * In addition, whether a student had a **Pet snake**, had **Seen a snake** or **Held a snake** was recorded. These variables were coded as 1 for yes, or 2 for no. **Freetime** **activity**: was coded as a nominal variable: Playground= 1, Bedroom = 2, Beach = 3, Woods = 4, Garden = 5, Living room = 6, and Other outdoor = 7. * **Playspace**: This nominal variable reduced Freetime activity to; 1 = Indoors (Bedroom, Living room), 2= Close supervision (Garden, Playground), and 3 = Outdoors (Beach,Woods, or Other outdoors) * **Connectedness to nature** was recorded using the Connectedness to Nature Index, Chen-Hsuan Cheng J & Monroe M. 2010. Connection to nature: Children’s affective attitude toward nature. Environment and Behavior, 44(1), 31-49. This instrument comprises four sub-scales **Enjoyment** of nature, **Empathy** with nature, **Oneness** with nature, and **Responsibility** for nature. The data set is arranged as the pre-intervention and post-intervention total scores, followed by the scale averages. * **Attitudes towards adders** were recorded using a 25 item questionnaire developed by the researchers. This generated five sub-scales using a 5 point Likert scale; **wonder**, **fear/dislike**, **learning interest**, **interaction willingness** and **conservation concern**. Each subscale was scored and averaged by dividing the score by the total number of questions, in each sub-scale this was five. The data set is arranged as the pre-intervention and post-intervention total scores, followed by the scale averages. Wonder sums: 1,10,17,20,22 Dislike/fear sums: 5,11,14,19,23 Learning interest sums: 2,7,8,16,25 Interaction willingness sums: 3,6,13,21,24 Conservation concern sums: 4,9,12,15,18 The primary analyses were completed on pre- and post-intervention scores for Connectedness to Nature, and Attitudes towards adders using 2-way analysis of variance (time pre-post X group control-intervention). Other variables were not included in the final publication.