Impact of Locally Focused, Student and Teacher Driven Environmental Education

Environmental education's goal of fostering pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors is critical to protecting the environment, but it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of individual EE programs. Much of existing research on EE effectiveness does not examine locally focused, teacher and student designed programming, even though this type of programming is exciting, tangible, and relevant to students' local geography. Engaging students in the process of designing their own environmental education project and associated community service activities may be an effective way to foster pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors in those students. The author explored how students' environmental attitudes and behaviors were affected after they participated in a hands-on, locally focused EE program.

This study took place at three low-density school districts in northwest Michigan during the 2012-2013 school year. The author examined how participation in a locally focused student and teacher driven environmental education program, the Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative (LSSI) program, affected students' eco-learning/behavioral intentions, eco-appreciation, and eco-impact awareness. Eco-learning/behavioral intentions measured how much students identified as enjoying learning about nature or doing nature-related activities. Eco-appreciation measured how much students agreed with statement of appreciation of nature, like believing certain places in nature are special or enjoying being in nature. Eco-impact awareness measured students' awareness of how humans can affect the environment negatively.

Participants in the study included groups of 4th, 5th, and 7th grade students who worked on projects sponsored by the LSSI program, which were used as the study groups, and a 4th grade group that followed the standard science curriculum, which was used as the control group for comparison. The three groups that did LSSI projects did different types of learning and community service activities. The 4th grade group focused on observing signs of mammals, leave no trace principles, and creating informational signs for the public. The 5th grade group learned about forest biodiversity by comparing their school's forest and a National Forest and engaged in service by improving a trail in the school forest. The 7th grade group cleaned up a local beach as part of an “adopt a beach” project, learned about invasive species removal and replaced them with native plants, and developed a forest ecosystem management plan. As part of the projects, the 7th grade group educated the community about beach litter and invasive species. The 5th and 7th grade projects each were designed with student input. Participants were asked to complete surveys; a total of 432 4th through 8th graders participated in the pre-program survey, but only 20% of those participants completed a post survey and were therefore analyzed in the study. Prior to distribution, teachers reviewed surveys to ensure the clarity of questions and relevance to these students. The questionnaire asked students to mark how much they agreed or disagreed with general environmental questions like “I would be willing to volunteer to help nature.” In the post-program survey, students also answered open-ended questions about their experiences doing the projects. The surveys were analyzed using statistics.

Overall, the study found that roughly one-third of participants most enjoyed the opportunity to be in nature, and relatively few participants enjoyed learning about nature (5%). 4th and 5th grade students that participated in an LSSI project showed increased understanding that humans can negatively impact nature (eco-impact awareness), but did not show changes in their eco-learning/behavioral intentions or eco-appreciation. The 7th grade group did not show any change in any of the three categories. The 4th grade control group, which did not participate in an LSSI project, showed an increase in eco-learning/behavioral intentions, but no change in the other two categories.

Students that had previous EE experiences scored the highest in all three categories, indicating that sustained exposure to EE helps increase pro-environmental attitudes. Students that participated in an LSSI project already had high levels of eco-learning/behavioral intentions and eco-appreciation. The students in the comparison group showed increased levels in eco-learning/behavioral intentions; however, they started out with the lowest levels in the pre-survey, giving them the most room to grow. They may also have been more interested in eco-learning as an opportunity to go outside, while the other students had already had plenty of outdoor time thanks to their projects.

The results of this study would likely vary in another location or with different participants. A relatively small percentage of participants responded to the post-program survey, and results may have varied with more participants. Additionally, the data gathered over one year, making it hard to measure growth in students' environmental attitudes and behavior in response to repeated EE over many years. Since the study did not compare groups that participated in locally based EE to groups that did more generic or traditional EE, it is unclear whether the change in attitudes and behavior is due to the type of EE or to EE in general.

The author recommend developing EE programming that caters to the specific interests of students. Involvement in the local community helps students gain an understanding of human impact on nature and provides students with tools to mitigate that impact. Additionally, repeated exposure to EE may help increase pro-environmental attitudes and help them stick.