A Gathering of Environmental Groups Inspires Students to Become Involved

Previous research suggests that when students become involved in local community projects, they are better able to learn about and engage with environmental issues. This is because students can experience the issues firsthand, and are made to feel that they have power to influence local outcomes. However, getting students involved with community projects is not always easy, since not all schools have the resources to facilitate service learning. Therefore, the authors of this article investigated whether a simple event—a gathering of local environmental groups—could inspire students to become involved on their own. An event like this could be held in a variety of settings, and if successful, could lead to more environmentally engaged young adults.

A researcher in Indiana decided to work with local schools and environmental organizations to hold an “environmental fair,” where high school students could engage with representatives of local community groups and learn about their missions. The researcher also chose to evaluate the impact this fair had on the students' self-reported awareness of local environmental issues, as well as their intention to become involved in community groups to address those issues. After reaching out to 23 local environmental organizations, the researcher heard back from 15 groups who were willing to participate. The organizations represented a variety of environmental topics, including species extinction and air quality. On the day of the fair, representatives from each group gathered in a facility where they set up tables with information and activities for students.

The researcher collected data from students from four public high schools within one Indiana county. 147 students completed questionnaires, both before attending the environmental fair and after. These questionnaires asked students to rate their awareness of environmental issues on a 5-point scale, and their intention to become involved with environmental groups on a 4-point scale. The researcher compared students' responses before the fair with those given afterward.

The average pre-fair environmental awareness score for all participants was over 4.5 out of 5, which shows high awareness. However, 15 students reported an initial, pre-fair awareness score of less than 4 out of 5 points, signifying that their awareness was lower than average. Overall, students' awareness scores did not increase significantly after attending the fair, which may have been because their scores were high to begin with. However, within the small group of students with low pre-fair awareness, the fair did increase environmental awareness by a statistically significant margin (from a score of 3.30 to 3.87). On average, all students' intention to become involved with local environmental groups showed a statistically significant increase after the fair.

This study examined students' self-reported environmental awareness and intention to become involved, meaning that students may have misrepresented themselves on the questionnaire, either intentionally or unintentionally. This also means that the researcher did not collect data on whether students acted on their intentions to become involved, or were just temporarily inspired. Further research could follow up with students long after the fair to ask if they had become involved in environmental groups.

According to the author, these results underline the disconnect between awareness and action that previous studies have demonstrated. Awareness was not significantly correlated with intention to join an environmental group, suggesting that the fair's influential factor was something other than providing information. The author hypothesizes that the one-on-one interaction with people who work on environmental issues brought “passion and excitement” to the topics, and inspired students. Because of the significant increases in students' intention to become involved with community groups, the author suggests that other school districts adapt this idea for their local communities. This is most likely to be helpful for students who have a relatively low level of environmental awareness.