Bugs, Books, and Being Ethical: Teaching Kids to Study Insects

Icterine Warbler

07-11-2025

Kingfisher flutters his wings. “Conservation without Dao is like a river without fish. The fish are not numbers. They are rhythms. I do not disturb the rhythm. I join it.

In Kingfisherish Wandering [1]

© Wix

How should schools balance hands-on science with compassion for living things? White and colleagues [2] aim to answer this question by examining insect collecting with K–12 students. They map both its educational payoffs and its ethical pitfalls, and then propose a practical framework for teachers and informal educators.

Insects are abundant, diverse, and accessible, making them ideal for observation, classification, and inquiry—core habits of scientific thinking with roots in Dewey’s call for real-world experiences [3,4]. Done well, place-based insect work boosts participation, understanding, and even health outcomes [5,6].

Conservation concerns about pollinator decline and broader insect losses raise real questions about purposeful killing for schoolwork. There is also an unresolved debate about insect pain and welfare; while evidence for sentience is limited, the precautionary principle suggests minimizing harm. Beyond biology, some students’ moral, cultural, or religious commitments—including Indigenous reciprocity ethics and non-harm traditions—may conflict with lethal activities [7,8].

The paper recommends co-creating a classroom code of ethics so students have a voice and agency. Suggested elements include: collecting only with a clear learning purpose; reducing numbers; using humane euthanasia when necessary; tracking specimens and “bycatch”; treating all organisms with respect; and honoring opt-out choices with alternative tasks (e.g., data analysis). The authors also adapt the “Three Rs” (replace, reduce, refine) to insect education and highlight non-lethal alternatives such as capture-observe-release, photography, environmental DNA (emerging), and citizen-science platforms like iNaturalist and BugGuide.

NQ—our collective ecological intelligence—grows when students connect knowledge with care and responsibility. Structured, local insect studies can cultivate curiosity and systems thinking, while an explicit ethics process nurtures empathy, perspective-taking, and civic habits of deliberation. In other words, pair rigorous inquiry with value-aware practice, and we educate not just future scientists but wiser citizens [9,10].

References

[1] Nguyen MH. (2025). Kingfisherish Wandering. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FVLLLXNW/

[2] White P, et al. (2025). Insect collecting with K-12 aged students: Balancing educational value and ethical considerations. The Journal of Environmental Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2025.2567386

[3] Dewey J. (1938). Experience and Education. Macmillan.

[4] Matthews RW, Flage LR, Matthews JR. (1997). Insects as teaching tools in primary and secondary education. Annual Review of Entomology, 42(1), 269-289. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ento.42.1.269

[5] Smith GA. (2002). Place-based education: Learning to be where we are. Phi Delta Kappan, 83(8), 584-594. https://doi.org/10.1177/003172170208300806

[6] Smith GA. (2013). Place-based education: Practice and impacts. In International handbook of research on environmental education (pp. 213-220). Routledge.

[7] Kimmerer RW. (2013). The honorable harvest. In Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants (pp. 175-204). Milkweed editions.

[8] Harvey P. (2007). Avoiding unintended harm to the environment and the Buddhist ethic of intention. Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 14, 1-34.

[9] Tran TT. (2025). Flying beyond didacticism: The creative environmental vision of ‘Wild Wise Weird’. Young Voices of Science. https://youngvoicesofscience.org/?p=1963

[10] Vuong QH, Nguyen MH, La VP. (2022). The mindsponge and BMF analytics for innovative thinking in social sciences and humanities. Walter de Gruyter GmbH.