Long-term nature-based educational programs achieve student satisfaction and conservation awareness despite little tie to curriculumThe purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristic features, benefits and challenges of what were referred to as long-term nature-based educational programs. Long-term in this context means several days of programming over the course of one year. The educational programs being studed were provided by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) to fifth grade students in two communities.
INPA programming includes school-based and experiential outdoors and nature-based activities along with an environmental action component. This qualitative study explored the characteristics and outcomes associated with two INPA programs. One program was titled Friends of the Sand (FoS); the other was Tabor Creek (TC). FoS involved one fifth-grade class located in a populated coastal, middle-class Jewish community in central Israel that was participating in the program for a second year. TC involved two fifth-grade classes located in a rural, low-income Arab village in Northern Israel. These students were participating in the program for the first time. Both programs consisted of educational components in distinctly different habitats and were intended to foster student and community conservation awareness.
Researchers collected and interpreted qualitative data derived from their first-hand observations of INPA activities combined with their interviews of students, teachers and INPA program facilitators. Despite the fact that this study did not measure or assess learning outcomes, researchers found that the students in both programs expressed high satisfaction with their program experiences and demonstrated a heightened conservation awareness. While the specific content in the two programs was different, each included some in-school preparation for outdoor field trips as well as the field trips themselves to nature reserves near the students' schools. Both included some form of action element. FoS students re-seeded areas and cleared paths, for example, and TC students picked up litter and educated others about the importance of keeping their natural environment clean. In both instances, there was little if any connection made to the school curricula. The students' teachers tended to be on the sidelines or called in to help with discipline. The majority of the instruction, both indoors and at the nature sites, was by the INPA facilitators. The teachers expressed appreciation for the programs while also indicating that more collaboration in planning, if not in instruction, would be beneficial.
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