Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Why Evidence-Based Hope Is Crucial To Salish Sea Recovery And Beyond, Dr. Elin Kelsey, Ginny Broadhurst

Institute Publications

In April 2023 and March 2024, the Salish Sea Institute engaged hope scholar and thought-leader Elin Kelsey, for events with the common theme of sharing information about evidence-based hope and helping the audience apply that thinking to combat the pervasive doom and gloom narrative that persists about climate change and the environment in general.

The first event was a 2 ½ day Hope for the Salish Sea (HSS) intensive environmental leadership workshop specifically co-designed and led by Elin, Ginny Broadhurst, Director of the Salish Sea Institute, and Mavis Underwood of Tsawout Community, WSANEC Nation. The Salish Sea Institute also organized …

Somatic Learning And Eco-Anxiety In Environmental Education Teacher Preparation, Pippa Hemsley

WWU Graduate School Collection

This study investigated the potential for somatic pedagogies to address eco-anxiety among prospective environmental educators. Although it can also have positive effects, eco-anxiety often becomes an overwhelming experience that contributes to high levels of burnout and inaction. Somatic pedagogies are those that purposefully include a sensory-reflective component. A short curricular intervention was implemented in an environmental education curriculum class of 19 undergraduate students to explore how using somatic pedagogies to reflect on eco-emotions impacted readiness to address eco-anxiety in their future teaching, and in what ways somatic pedagogies might support environmental education teacher preparation. Using grounded theory methodology to analyze …

Original Environmental Education Lessons And Curriculum, Waverly Shreffler

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This project is a culmination of my learning through Huxley and the Honors Program designed with the intent of exercising creativity, reflection, and resourcefulness to better myself as a future educator. I have designed a curriculum with five unique units and several coinciding lesson plans with ninth and tenth grade learners in mind. This work reflects my educational philosophy of bringing traditional curricular disciplines into relation through interdisciplinary teaching and multimodal learning. As an Environmental Education student, it has become my duty to acknowledge Place, Indigenous Knowledge, and social justice as integral to the future of education. I try to …

Land, Body, Liberation: An Ecofeminist Pedagogical Approach To Place-Based Education, Amy L. Fitkin

WWU Graduate School Collection

Within this project I applied an ecofeminism framework to the tangible practices of place-based education regarding issues of social justice-based sustainability efforts. In order to recognize the impact of identity-based privileges, I explore how place-based education promotes the development of problem-solving skills, critical-thinking techniques and building meaningful relationships within a community. These goals were achieved by shifting the white settler colonist understanding of human conquest and subjugation over land and bodies from an anthropocentric lens to an androcentric lens. In other words, illuminating the oppressive role the patriarchy has continued to play in exploiting natural "resources" and the bodies of …

Interdisciplinary Interspecies Pedagogies For Educating In The Anthropocene: Bringing Critical Animal Studies To Huxley College Of The Environment, Sarah R. (Sarah Rose) Olson

WWU Graduate School Collection

This report examines ENVS 499T Introduction to Critical Animal Studies: Theory, Agency, and Action, a 2-credit environmental humanities seminar designed as a M.Ed. in Environmental Education field project through Western Washington University’s (WWU) Huxley College of the Environment. ENVS 499T was created in response to a lack of critical animal studies course offering at WWU. The seminar was designed to provide WWU undergraduates with an opportunity to engage with interspecies ethical issues through an interdisciplinary lens. This report explores literature relevant to the design and implementation of this field project. It draws on scholars from critical animal studies and other …

A Needs Assessment Of The Perceptions And Opportunities To Enhance Nature Exploration At Publicly Funded Preschools, Naomi Liebhold

WWU Graduate School Collection

Extensive research supports the benefits of nature exploration in children’s lives. Research also suggests, however, that low-income families and other historically marginalized groups experience multiple barriers to accessing green spaces. In an attempt to counteract this inequality, a needs assessment was performed to understand the challenges and barriers public preschool providers face in regularly leading their children in nature exploration. The target audience of this evaluation was Head Start and Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program [ECEAP] teachers and parents. Along with measuring the challenges and barriers at these centers in regard to nature exploration, this evaluation assessed the resources …

Everyone Can Grow! Winter Programming Using An Indoor Horticulture Environmental Education Program To Benefit Military Veterans, Rachel Elam

WWU Graduate School Collection

Working with plants has numerous physical, mental health and well-being benefits for people, and military veteran farming programs have been started to provide these benefits. However, these programs lack activities outside of the Washington State growing season which is approximately May to October. Since these programs are largely meant as ways for veterans to engage in community and peer support, the gap over winter is unacceptable for the purposes of supporting mental health. This project produced a winter environmental education curriculum for military vets, titled Everyone can Grow! (ECG!), and is designed to provide peer support and psychological …

Not Just Nature, Sarah Kellogg

WWU Graduate School Collection

This field project, entitled Not Just Nature, consists of three parts: the first being a curriculum by the same name. This curriculum, an arts-based workshop series, has been/is being developed to open conversations to interrogate the colonial and white supremacist concepts of nature that have been created in the United States through a variety of means.

The second part of this project is using self as a site of research/critical autoethnography. No field is apolitical, and the creator/researcher will always bring pieces of themselves and their identities to whatever processes they participate in. Thus, throughout my graduate experience I have …

The Benefits Of A Therapeutic Nature Education Intervention For Children With Adhd, Madeline Dineen

WWU Graduate School Collection

ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) diagnoses have been on the rise in children in the United States for the last twenty years due to multiple possible reasons (NIMH, 2016). Recent work on the subject, however, notes a positive correlation between exposure of children to experience-based nature therapy and the reduction of ADHD symptoms (Taylor & Kuo 2011). I hypothesized that implementing an intervention that is in an outdoor nature environment, that is experience-based and contains a learning objective would be correlated with a reduction of ADHD behaviors in elementary aged children. This study is a probe into the possibility of …

Environmental Interpretation Plan For The Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail, Rosalie Matsumoto

WWU Graduate School Collection

As lead researcher and developer of the Interpretation Plan for the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail, this document will detail the background, research, and process involved to develop such a plan for the US Forest Service. I will first conceptualize Interpretation as a profession and its relation to and with Environmental Education with supporting research to help give context to the next section: an introduction to my project. After introducing the Interpretation Plan, I will detail my work and process to develop the Foundational Information, or the core of the Plan. Finally, I will conclude with my challenges, learnings, and …

The Global Energy Crisis, Katie Calhoun

Facing the Future Lessons

The world is at an energy tipping point. Countries and communities can choose to be proactive or wait and be reactive, however it is much less costly to do the former. In this project, high school environmental science students will examine the current energy use and concerns in a named country or community, analyze the pros and cons of the current energy situation and how it effects the social, economic and environmental aspects of the culture, then create a more sustainable, resilient plan for that country.

Mothers' Roots Curriculum Project, Sonya Gobert

WWU Graduate School Collection

Since time immemorial, Indigenous mothers have taught their children how to survive in Indigenous way of being. When we remind our daughters of the strength, and the generations of resiliency and self-love before them, is when we will see real change. The truth is, when we teach our children their identity, we are giving them the tools to restore and rebuild their roots. These children are then the seeds which will be planted with the promise to grow in the awareness of true sovereignty, nationhood, and self-empowerment steeped in Indigenous truth which will ultimately trickle down in their own parenting …

Creating A Community Hub For Natural History Education In The Methow Valley And Beyond, Mary Kiesau

WWU Graduate School Collection

I created and integrated three different methods of natural history education for my final project of my Masters of Education in Environmental Education in order to further establish myself as a professional educator, communicator and naturalist, and to create ways for people who live in or have an affinity for the Methow Valley to be more observant, informed and connected with the natural world. Building on previous graduate coursework as well as professional work as an environmental educator and photographer, I created a new natural history education website and Facebook page with a wide variety of online resources, while also …

Wisdom Of The Ancient Forests: Stories In The Living Thread, Nick Sky

WWU Graduate School Collection

In this project I am using my life experiences as an evolving environmental educator to create a theoretical and content base for an educational approach that combines holistic natural history education and complexity education. This approach is necessarily transdisciplinary. This educational approach is designed to be implemented using methods that are field based, inquiry based, narrative based, and learning communities based. The implementation of this educational approach is designed to take place in the ancient forests of the Cascadia/PNW region of North America.

Key Words: Complexity, Experiential education, Ancient forest, Resilience, Holistic, Emotion, Natural history, Perception, Time, Values

Teaching Environmental/Stem College Access Curriculum In Two Western Washington Title I Elementary Schools, Wendelin Dunlap

WWU Graduate School Collection

This study attempts to answer the question: What are the best methods for designing Environmental/STEM College Access Curriculum for Title I Classrooms? Participants were 98 5^th-grade classes at two Title I schools. The treatment was 15 hours of College Access Curriculum: 7 hours occurred at the North Cascades Institute’s Mountain School, eight hours in the students’ regular classrooms. The curriculum was taught by Western Washington University students trained as coaches. Data were gathered from elementary students (pre- and post-program surveys, retrospective questionnaire and open-ended question), coaches (essays and teacher evaluations) and teachers (feedback form).

Data gathered from elementary …

Incorporating Experiential Education Into Entry-Level College Biology Curriculum, David W. Droppers

WWU Graduate School Collection

Through a literature review and application from personal experiences, this paper acts as a best methods guide for incorporating experiential education in higher education biology/life sciences curricula. The advantages of experiential education are explored, as well as how to best employ them to maximize gains. As experiential education is on the decline, this paper outlines what may be lost from a student’s education experience. This paper explores in particular entry-level college biological/life sciences curricula, as well as the pedagogy of entry-level college students. Throughout the paper, I reflect on how I have applied these methods through field trips as part …

Pedagogy For Restoration: Addressing Social And Ecological Degradation Through Education, David Krzesni

WWU Graduate School Collection

This work seeks to understand the conditions leading the degradation of Earth in order to discover pedagogy for restoration. The degradation of natural environments and of social conditions is identified as a significantly anthropogenic process. This suggests that degradation of Earth is a moral issue and thus human morality and its development are explored in depth. Individual moral development is found to be deeply related to socialization and provides insight into how and why we fail to live to our potential as a naturally moral species. However, through education we can achieve a greater potential. This process cannot be scripted, …

Fostering Ecological Citizenship: The Case Of Environmental Service-Learning In Costa Rica, Jennifer Rebecca Kelly, Troy D. Abel

College of the Environment on the Peninsulas Publications

The intent of this study was to explore how experiential education fosters ecological or environmental citizenship. In this context, we investigated the impact of international environmental service-learning in a college course. Specifically our research question was does environmental service-learning have an effect on ecological citizenship? Using a multimethod approach of both qualitative and quantitative instruments our study drew on 13 participant interviews, 19 student journals and 10 survey responses. Employing variables from the Value-Belief-Norm Theory our findings suggest that environmental service-learning experiences impact both awareness of environmental consequences and personal normative beliefs. We conclude that ecological citizenship was indirectly impacted …

Ecotopia's Prism, Troy D. Abel

College of the Environment on the Peninsulas Publications

Since 2003, I’ve taken more than 150 students of environmental studies to explore the landscapes, culture and economy of Costa Rica. Costa Rica’s tourism bureau proudly proclaims “no artificial ingredients” to draw visitors from around the world. Situated at the confluence of two oceans and bridging two continents in the tropical latitudes, this small nation hosts some of the greatest concentration of biodiversity anywhere. Costa Rica is about the size of West Virginia, or 0.03% of the world’s surface, yet it holds an estimated 5 percent of the world’s biodiversity. Species from North and South America mixed on this continental …

Using Tide To Clean, Doesn't Mean Its Green: An Argument Against Greenwashing, Casey Rogers

Occam's Razor

When you wash your clothes, you choose a detergent that touts itself as an eco-friendly detergent. After all, why not help the environment with your everyday activities? You've just seen an ad for a new Tide product called Free and Gentle, a Proctor and Gamble creation, telling you all about how great Tide is for the environment. So you go to the store and spend the average $12 on a bottle that gets you approximately 30 loads. When you look at the back of the bottle, you don't see a list of ingredients, but if the commercial says it's good …

Contrasting Immersion And Consultation Service-Learning Pedagogies: A Step Towards Reconstructing Personal Values And Norms, Connor Harron

College of the Environment Graduate and Undergraduate Publications

The purpose of the current research was to examine the effects of two different environmental education programs on participants. In doing so this thesis assessed a Western Washington University study abroad program (Rainforest Immersion and Conservation Action) and a second WWU course, ESTU 436 environmental impact assessment. Both courses use service learning as a way to allow students to actively engage in the learning process and apply knowledge learned in the classroom to real world issues. Although similar in structure, the RICA program benefits from providing an immersion experience and a multi-disciplinary approach. The author hypothesized that participants in the …

Environmental Citizenship And Carbon Intensity; Evaluating The Carbon Masters Educational Program, Andrea Jean Thomas

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This honors senior project is composed of two separate, but integrated documents which, taken together, act as the foundation for a formal, systematic program evaluation model for the climate change education group Carbon Masters. The first section is comprised of a “policy analysis" proposal which outlines a policy problem, two solutions by which to address it, and a method by which to analyze the solutions for their effectiveness, efficacy, and community-building. The policy problem is defined as the fact that there are too little educational programs available to the public that offer valid, proactive, constructive and informational tools to empower …

A Value-Belief-Norm Theory Of Support For Social Movements: The Case Of Environmentalism, Paul C. Stern, Thomas Dietz, Troy D. Abel, Greg Guagnano, Linda Kalof

College of the Environment on the Peninsulas Publications

We present a theory of the basis of support for a social movement. Three types of support (citizenship actions, policy support and acceptance, and personal-sphere behaviors that accord with movement principles) are empirically distinct from each other and from committed activism. Drawing on theoretical work on values and norm-activation processes, we propose a value-belief-norm (VBN) theory of movement support. Individuals who accept a movement's basic values, believe that valued objects are threatened, and believe that their actions can help restore those values experience an obligation (personal norm) for pro-movement action that creates a predisposition to provide support; the particular type …