This paper argues that there is a great need to communicate the concept behind ecosystem services (ES) as human beings are inevitably depended on those goods and benefits provided by nature (e.g. Haines-Young and Potschin, 2010; MEA, 2005). Facing a continuous growing world population as well as a steadily economic growth, the demand for ES increases while at the same time findings revealed that most of world’s ES are being degraded or used unsustainably (MEA, 2005). Hence there is a great need that society, as it greatly influences and depends on ES, understand what ES are, how they are provided, and how they are influenced by human activities. Agriculturalists are asked to align their farming practices in a sustainable way so that future generations can still utilise and benefit from ES provided. It is important to find out how students develope their understanding of various concepts related to ecosystem services in order to help them to grasp the complexity behind the concept of ES.Thus we developed a tool kit for high school students focusing on meadow ES in order to achieve our goal to communicate the concept of ecosystem services and analysed concept maps desigend by students to get insight into their conceptual delevopment. The teaching resources provide a bottom-up approach starting with basics concepts such as observing different types of grasslands and recapitulating the concept of photosynthesis. Students are asked to directly ‘experience’ the ES concept via a multi-methodological approach including hands-on as well as minds on learning in class and  outside in the fields. Learning activities include inquiry elements such as soil analysis, classroom discussions, student presentations and group discussions. The teaching modules ask students to create most often a pre and a post concept map. By doing so teachers and researchers are provided a tool to assess the level of system thinking reached by their students at a particular stage. Compared to novices’ experts are more likely to organize knowledge around big ideas and recognize meaningful patterns of information. These patterns provide triggering conditions for accessing knowledge that is relevant to the task. The tool kit has been tested in a high school class already and preliminary results show that not only student but teachers benefit from this approach.

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