Formal learning setting

A fundamental goal of environmental education is to establish environmental literacy in students. Though there has been extensive research on the outcomes for environmental education, there is still a lack of insight as to which curricular components make an impact with students over time. Some researchers found that practicing science, collecting data, using geospatial tools, developing models, and participating in citizen science programs can lead to students establishing longer-lasting environmental literacy, linking this work to their community and complex decision-making.

Research has shown that as American students progress through their educational journeys, their interest in science declines between elementary and middle school, which can spark a lack of interest in science in high school. Common factors include a lack of role models and mentors in science classes, low support from family and friends, a perception of science careers as difficult to attain, and unengaging science teaching methods.

Biodiversity education can be challenging for educators as biodiversity is complex and evolving with multiple definitions. Previous research indicates that personal experiences with nature can help students learn and retain environmental lessons in a more meaningful way than other teaching methods. Previous research defined the process model of meaningful understanding with five steps (building on personal experience, meaningfulness, comprehensibility, sense of learning, understanding) for students to develop science subject matter affinity through subjective and objective means.

Environmental education (EE) poses an opportunity to build recycling rates in communities by engaging students, teachers, and parents. In Iran, municipal recycling rates hover around 8% annually compared to other countries where municipal recycling rates can exceed 80% each year. The researchers drew upon the Albanian Health Promoting Schools Model (HPSM), which promotes health and well-being in the curriculum with different projects for students, teachers, and parents.

Environmental issues have become an increasing concern over the last few decades. Specifically, in Portugal, education on environmental problems has lacked compared with other European countries. In 2016, Portugal resolved to reduce its overall carbon emissions. As a part of that resolution, the country pledged to invest more in environmental education and awareness of the pressing issues of climate change in order to effectively promote environmentally-friendly behaviors in students. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are key in providing education to the next generation of leaders.

In the midwestern United States, bald eagle populations have been impacted by lead poisoning. The phenomenon was linked to the ingestion of lead ammunition from deer carcasses during winter scavenging seasons. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) developed an outreach program at 54 National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) across 9 states to educate deer hunters about the impact of using lead ammunition and offer safe alternatives in the 2016, 2017, and 2018 deer hunting seasons.

Climate change education (CCE) is complex yet critical for future generations. A significant component of CCE includes modeling because of the many spatial and temporal challenges to conducting climate change experiments in a lab at scale. However, climate models are not always complete since many factors (e.g., future population size, technology innovations, etc.) may still be unknown or cannot be accounted for as they may happen in the future. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading research consortium of climate change scientists.

In 2019, the International Union for Conservation of Nature declared the globe was experiencing its sixth mass extinction and conservation action was needed. Conservation activities, such as planting trees, can empower participants and instill pro-environmental behaviors. However, there has been new insight into the pedagogy associated with stewardship. A long-standing view on stewardship activities presents humans with the power to save nature, which further divides humans and nature, as opposed to considering their inseparability.

In March 2020, countries world-wide responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by implementing lockdowns and strict policies to protect the health and well-being of their citizens. In-person instruction ceased, and teachers and students had to adapt to distance education and virtual technology, which were new informal learning settings. These challenges were exacerbated in education in Galápagos, Ecuador, due to the archipelago's remote location from the mainland, lack of financial and educational resources, and poor internet connectivity.

Arts-based pedagogies have become popular in environmental education (EE) to enhance students' experience and develop interdisciplinary leaders and thinkers for climate change issues. Dance improvisation offers an opportunity for students to blur the human-nature delineation through body movement to understand the relationship of environmental changes on humans and human action on environments. In particular, dance improvisation may help young students embody weather and discover that weather actively happens all the time, not just when the student is outside experiencing the weather.