Cognitive function/development

Institutions of higher education are positioned to influence students in becoming informed and action-minded citizens for sustainable change. There are studies that inform best pedagogical practice for undergraduates and studies that validate different objectives that college-aged students retain over time. However, there is a lack of inquiry linking curriculum design and learning outcomes.

There are many benefits associated with outdoor field trips for students, including: increased ecological knowledge, connection to nature, cognitive skills, and student interest and motivation. Field trips are conducive for discovering information and exploring concepts outside of the classroom. However, educators may resist field trips for a variety of reasons, such as lack of funding, liability concerns, curriculum inflexibility due to focus on standardized testing, fear of poor student behavior, logistical challenges, and lack of time or training.

One aim of geography education is to provide context to the challenges that people face around the world. These global issues include climate change, hunger, and poverty. However, these issues are not linear, with simple cause and effect pathways. Instead, there is a complex system of relationships across space and time that contribute to these problems on all scales. For example, human activities like deforestation can affect the environment at local, regional, and/or global scales which affects the social and natural systems at all levels.

The European Union has been working to shift to a circular economy, an economic model which focuses on the entire life cycle of a product (production, consumption, waste management, etc.). The purpose of a circular economy is to receive the most utility out of the product while limiting emissions and waste. Yet, there remains skepticism about this new model, both among the general population and among specialized professionals such as technicians, engineers, and researchers.

The marine environment plays a vital role in regulating our drinking water, weather, climate, coastline, and our food. Yet, it has faced extreme degradation in recent years, primarily from human activities, which in turn effects human health and wellbeing. Many countries have identified the need to provide youth with the knowledge and tools to make informed decisions about marine environment-related issues. For example, Taiwan has integrated marine education into the K-12 curriculum to increase ocean literacy among young individuals.

The implementation of climate change education (CCE) among youth globally has become increasingly essential, as it is important to educate future generations who will be most affected by climate change. Introducing CCE at a young age can provide people with environmental knowledge and awareness that can influence them to make well-informed decisions to help mitigate climate change impacts and encourage climate change action. While the implementation of CCE for youth is essential, research has shown that CCE can lead to young participants feeling overwhelmed.

Interest and concern about climate change among the general public has declined in recent years. Some research has shown that 'edutainment,' or educational media that is entertaining, may improve engagement on climate change. Little is known about the relationship between entertainment and cognitive engagement, which is the audience's ability to retain information. Cognitive engagement is key to maintaining interest and motivation to overcome the challenge of learning new material.

Outdoor learning has become increasingly popular globally. Research has shown that outdoor learning can help teach students skills and concepts that may be difficult to grasp in a classroom setting, such as water quality testing to determine if water is polluted. Further, outdoor learning can promote interdisciplinary thinking among students. Although studies have shown the benefits of outdoor learning, limited research exists on the meaning-making process during outdoor learning experiences.

Young people are increasingly interested in gaming, which has created an opportunity to provide educational content through video games. In recent years, video games focused on climate change (CC) have become more prevalent, but research has shown mixed outcomes when examining changes in engagement with CC. As a result, the researchers of this study investigated which attributes of a video game could impact users' engagement with CC. The purpose of this study was to create a framework of game attributes to include in future CC video games in order to more successfully engage young adults.

Studies show that spending time outdoors promotes holistic health and facilitates healthy cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development among children. Spending time outdoors can also foster empathy for wildlife, inspire love for the natural world, and promote nature connectedness. Given these benefits, the outdoor education (OE) movement—which aims to foster environmental stewardship and enhance learning and development—has taken root in countries around the world. Forest School (FS) is a branch of OE that focuses primarily on early childhood education.