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Article History

Received: 15 July 2025

Accepted: 23 December 2025

First Online: 7 January 2026

Declarations

:

: For this anonymous, voluntary study, no ethics committee review was required according to the Slovenian legislation on behavioural research and personal data protection and the ethics committee of the University of Ljubljana ( ). . However, the study was nevertheless reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education. The usernames of our participants were collected for the purpose of collecting their observations. However, immediately after downloading the data, the usernames were replaced with labels, consisting of the program, gender and an id number – PSTF1, PSTM2, BSTM1... All procedures complied with the Slovenian Personal Data Protection Act (ZVOP-2). Before the learning activity an informed consent was obtained from the participants. All participants were informed about the public nature of the iNaturalist observations, the possibility of concealing records, and the aims of the study prior to the activity. The participation in the study was not obligatory – students could still do the activities and not participate in the study, by not filling in the pre-questionnaire. As none of the participants were under the age of 16, informed consent form parents/legally authorized representatives was not required.

: As this paper does not include information or images that could lead to the identification of a study participant, informed consent to publish is not applicable. However, all participants were informed about the possibility of requesting to be removed from the study at any point in the study process.

: The authors declare no competing interests.