4. Discussion
This study tested the effects that direct experience of nature
through a summer camp has on the affective and cognitive
components of children’s environmental attitudes, and their
potential effect on several kinds of environmental intentions. Our
findings show that direct exposure to nature through a camp
increases children’s emotional affinity towards the natural environment
as well as children’s ecological beliefs, supporting the
finding of previous authors that direct experience of nature may
contribute to create an emotional bond with nature (Cheng &
Monroe, 2012) and improve children’s ecological worldviews
(Evans et al., 2007). Therefore Hypothesis 1 was supported.
The studies that have been carried out in summer camps until
now have paid attention to the outcomes that a specific EE program