Formal learning setting

Renovating schoolyards to include outdoor learning spaces and natural play areas may be one way to provide increased access to green spaces in urban environments. Research shows that children with access to such spaces tend to engage in higher levels of physical activity and positive social interactions with peers. This study extends previous research by examining positive youth development outcomes of renovated, green schoolyards in low-income urban areas and the maintenance of these outcomes over time.

Farm Sprouts is a farm-based and nature-based preschool program designed to support the learning and positive development of young children in the context of the natural world. The program is framed around environmental stewardship, food systems, and nature. An evaluation of the Farm Sprouts program focused on the potential impact of the program on children's learning, their behavior, and family engagement.

This paper addresses the issue of climate change as a cause of distress and anxiety for many children. It includes an investigation of the problem and offers recommendations on how educators can use hope-inspired pedagogy to support children's emotional responses to climate change. The related discussion is based on current literature identified through a search using such search terms as climate anxiety, children, school, and pedagogy.

Nature-based early childhood education (ECE) programs integrate nature into their philosophy, curriculum, and physical environment. Such programs are sometimes referred to as forest pre-schools, forest kindergartens, and nature-based pre-schools. Children attending nature-based ECE programs typically spend the majority of their day outdoors in a nature-rich environment.

One persistent aspect of urban environmental injustice is inequitable distribution of vegetation, with lower income areas having less vegetation cover and fewer green spaces than more advantaged areas. As access to vegetation is linked to physical and mental health, limited vegetation in a community may contribute to the health disparities experienced by many people in low-income neighborhoods. This study was based on the understanding that schools could possibly play a role in mitigating some of the health disparities by making vegetation cover more equitable throughout the city.

This study was based on the understanding that green schoolyards may ease the negative effects of urbanization through increasing access to nature and its benefits. The study was also based on the understanding that green schoolyards in urban low-income communities may promote health equity. The specific aim of the study was to investigate whether redesigning schoolyards into natural community greenspaces would result in positive changes for children, youth, and adults living in low‐ income, urban neighborhoods.

Engineering is a key discipline for creating climate change solutions through developing materials and structures to combat negative impacts like rising temperatures, flooding, and sea level rise. Though much research has been conducted with middle and high school students to understand opinions of and the willingness to address climate change in future careers, there has been little review of how engineering students in undergraduate programs at universities in the United States regard climate change.

Environmental education (EE) researchers have begun to acknowledge the role of policy in developing effective and accessible EE; however, the interaction between EE research and policy has not been explicitly studied. Researchers tend to only collaborate with teaching professionals as opposed to including policymakers, which has led to this disconnect. The field is also politically sensitive and marked by competing values and ideologies.

As the climate crisis continues, universities are uniquely positioned to effectively prepare future alumni to engage in sustainable behaviors and create a resilient future. Despite the steps to develop sustainability efforts and curricula in higher education, it is imperative to acknowledge the influences on a students' understanding about environmental issues and solutions.

Establishing a sense of interdependence with one's natural surroundings is a critical element of environmental education. Those aspects of interaction have a significant influence on the way individuals behave and view their natural world, known as Nature Relatedness (NR). A person with strong NR feels connected with nature, a sense of agency to care for nature, and is comfortable and desires to be in nature. NR is theorized to reflect character strengths (CS).