How are you, Mar Menor? Fostering Awareness About an Ecological Crisis through Children's Art and Conversational Generative AI

Educating children and teenagers on environmental issues is crucial, as they not only internalize the importance of ecological preservation but can also share this knowledge at home, spreading awareness within their families and communities about these delicate matters. In this work, we introduce an innovative approach to raising awareness of environmental challenges faced by the Mar Menor lagoon by blending children’s art with conversational artificial intelligence. We built an interactive narrative visualization where users can learn about the ecosystem while exploring related drawings created by children and engaging in voice conversations with a chatbot powered by generative AI. To validate our approach, we conducted a preliminary evaluation of the prototype during the European Researchers’ Night 2024 where we gathered positive feedback through user tests and questionnaires, proving the potential of combining children’s creativity and AI technology to foster environmental stewardship and raise awareness about fragile ecosystems.