Paper Title
Effect of Outdoor Learning on Secondary School Biology Students’ Interest in Ecology in South-East, Nigeria

Abstract
The study investigated the effect of outdoor learning on secondary school Biology students’ interest in Ecology in South-East, Nigeria. The need for the study arose from concerns expressed by stakeholders, committed scholars and researchers on the poor interest of students in Biology. The study adopted mixed research design. One research question and one hypothesis guided the study. The population of the study comprised 251, 755 senior secondary two (SS 11) students in South-East, Nigerian public secondary schools in the 2024/2025 academic session. The sample size of 224 SS2 students were used. The instrument for data collection is Ecology Interest Rating Scale (EIRS). Cronbach’s Alpha test statistics was used to determine the reliability of the instrument. Reliability index of 0.79 was established for Ecology Interest Rating Scale. Mean and standard deviation scores were used to answer the research question while the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used in testing the hypotheses at .05 level of significance. Result showed that the gain interest scores of students taught Ecology with outdoor learning was higher than the gain interest scores of students taught with lecture method and it was statistically significant. The educational implication of the findings is that outdoor learning can be used to sustain students’ interest in learning Ecology. It is recommended that Biology teachers should use outdoor learning to enhance students’ interest in learning Ecology. Also, the curriculum planners should plan the nation’s Biology Curriculum to accommodate outdoor learning science programme which makes learners feel inter-connected with the natural world. Keywords - Outdoor Learning, Biology, Interest, Ecology, Effect.