Environmental Education Research Bulletin

Despite the potentially controversial nature of climate change, polling suggests that as many as 70% of middle-school science teachers are already teaching about some aspect of the topic. On average, however, teachers only spend one hour per year on the topic. This study's researchers believe that climate change, a complex, systemic issue, needs more time to be taught effectively. To that end, the research team sought data about classrooms where climate change is taught more extensively and successfully.

Fostering family learning through meaningful adult/ child interaction is often a central goal of informal science education. Although previous family-learning research has focused on designed settings such as science centers and museums, recent research has expanded to include a broader array of unstructured, everyday-life settings, including homes, parks, and community spaces. In this study, researchers developed and field-tested an outdoor family science activity that aimed to promote science learning during family beach trips.

Consensus exists among more than 97% of credible scientists that climate change is occurring and caused by human activity, yet U.S. public opinion remains divided. Recently, social media platforms, such as Facebook, have become instrumental in guiding public discourse and opinions around such polarized issues. Given this background, this study's researchers sought to address two questions: First, how do individuals respond to climate change-related misinformation on social media, and how might their responses be different based on political orientation?

Community environmental restoration, or eco-restoration, projects have the potential to lead to positive environmental impacts and affect student learning. Such projects can supplement in-class learning and, in the process, enhance students' academic outcomes, teamwork skills, personal development, civic engagement, and pro-environmental behaviors. However, past research has not addressed how long those outcomes last, especially for projects that take place in urban green spaces.

Many homeowners are interested in using more renewable energy within their houses, but are unsure how to incorporate or use those systems. An educational option for homeowners is eco-home open days, or Open Homes. In Open Homes, homeowners who have made energy refurbishments open their houses to people who are interested in adding green energy systems to their residences.

Metacognition, or awareness of one's thought processes, is associated with increased creative thinking and problem solving. These are important skills for addressing environmental issues overall and are particularly important when addressing largescale, systemic challenges, such as climate change. One way that educators can help learners develop and reflect on metacognition is through inquiry learning, which emphasizes question-asking rather than answer-giving.

Outdoor experiential education programs can deeply shape students' attitudes about the environment and, as such, are a promising way to increase the diversity of people and ideas that are welcomed in environmental spaces. Recognizing the disparity in demographics between typical experiential program participants, who tend to be white and upper-middle class, and the broader U.S. population, outdoor education programs have implemented a number of initiatives to increase their accessibility and relevance to a wider range of participants.

Fostering ethical approaches to decision-making that take the environment into consideration is an important goal of environmental education. Giving moral weight to both human and nonhuman nature, or eco-centric ethics, contrasts with traditional Western ethical systems, which tend to prioritize humans over nonhuman aspects of the environment. Field philosophy, which refers to a way of thinking that combines ecological and ethical learning during an outdoor field-based course, may offer an avenue for teaching eco-centric ethics and fostering personal development.

Environmental education addresses complex environmental, sustainability, and conservation-related issues through a range of approaches that seek to positively impact participants' attitudes, values, knowledge, and efficacy-related skills. Yet when it comes to taking action on those issues, a question remains: How might young people appropriately and effectively engage in locally relevant, meaningful actions—and, perhaps more importantly, how might those actions be sustained over time?

Reaching out to and hearing from a variety of community voices in dealing with watershed issues is vital. In particular, little research has been done as to how teenagers understand watersheds and their management. A new way of appealing to young people and hearing their perspectives is using photovoice, a method that involves taking photographs and then discussing those photos in a group. For this study, the researchers asked whether photovoice could be an effective tool for working with teens to identify their perceptions of local watershed issues and priorities.