Combining art with science to go beyond scientific facts in a narrative environment

Overlooking the Lake of Zurich, Switzerland, the team of “Sustainability Communication” at the Institute of Natural Resource Sciences, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, is exploring new possibilities of comprehensive and sustainable communication and teaching methods. Using narrative environments as working tools to promote sustainability, we have created an outdoor experience and learning environment for students and visitors to discover how grasses have changed the world and how this relates to sustainable food production today. This paper presents a learning experience in Gräserland (World of Grasses) and gives insights into how the combination of art and science communication can emotionally involve visitors, which can result in behavioral changes. Creating complex, narrative spaces to engage with our audience has created new ways of knowledge production, science communication and has gotten people to care. An effectiveness analysis has proven to be fruitful in tracking visitor’s insights and long-term learning outcomes, while enhancing their learning experience