Education Commons^™

Exploring The Importance Of Values, Place, And Perceptions In Conservation Decision-Making In Maine: A Mixed Methods Approach, Alyssa R. Soucy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Conservation inherently involves intertwined ecological systems and human societies. In Maine, USA conservation decision-making brings together many viewpoints, values, motivations, and experiences to balance diverse goals. Socio-cultural, experiential, financial, and ecological factors can all influence an individual’s ability to make or support a decision. This dissertation aimed to broadly explore how people perceive their role in conservation decision-making in Maine. In doing so, we articulate a diverse set of perspectives, experiences, and values. We used a mixed methods approach which enabled an in-depth understanding of the complexity of conservation decision-making while providing the opportunity for different voices to be heard. …

The Effect Of An Elephant Conservation Education Program On The Knowledge Base Of Children In Thailand, Angela Larios

Theses and Dissertations

Habitat fragmentation and human-elephant conflict (HEC) are two factors that have caused harm to both Asian elephants and humans in Thailand. Think Elephants International (TEI) is a non-profit organization whose goal is to educate children on these issues to encourage more interest in and knowledge about elephant conservation in the youth of Thailand. TEI has developed a systematic education initiative and established a method for assessing the program’s efficacy using a pre- and post-survey. The current study analyzes student responses from one open-ended question from this survey collected both before and after the students participated in the TEI program. This …

Meet Me In The Middle: A Scoping Review On Understanding Adolescent Needs In Climate Communication, Gwendolyn Monica Hoff Anderson

Master's Projects and Capstones

The greatest effects of climate change are likely to be felt by youth. Young people are disproportionately affected by climate change due to their critical developmental stage and lack of power, and they experience both higher severity and prevalence of mental health issues related to climate change. Strong emotions have long been recognized as potential catalysts for action, or they may lead to paralyzing feelings of being overwhelmed. Climate communication is a critical tool to spark climate concern and encourage action. Activism, in turn, may help youth manage their anxiety about climate change. This scoping review examines emerging evidence on …

Liquid Border, Yingfan Jia

Masters Theses

A River is a mighty and constantly-evolving force, leaving behind an intricately designed and constantly changing system. Not just a river, the Rio Grande stretches all the way from Colorado before intersecting with the US-Mexico Border in southern Texas - a point where the powerful forces of nature now merge with a clearly-defined political boundary. The outcome of this is a unique ecological niche, which may often go unnoticed despite its distinctiveness.

Texas is famous for its farms and ranches, and the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas was once an agricultural hub. However, urbanization and the depletion of water …

I’Ll Be Goldenrod And You’Ll Be Aster: The Case For Revolutionizing Western Methods Of Teaching Using Indigenous Ontologies, Joanna Logerfo

Master's Theses

An interesting facet of living as a human in the 21st century is contending with the end of the world. It’s been imagined in a thousand ways over the past twenty years. Will it be zombies? Aliens? An AI revolution? Or will it perhaps be something more mundane, more “down-to-Earth”? The floods, the droughts, the famines, and all the rest of the cataclysmic global events that occur every year have taken center stage in the world-ending debate, parading under a name as threatening and expansive as the Boogeyman: climate change. A recent article from NPR covered the United Nations’ 2022 …

Using Podcasts To Bring National Estuarine Research Reserves Into The Classroom For Grades 6-12, Kaitlyn M. Dirr

Senior Theses

In a typical classroom setting, there are significant challenges to exposing students to concepts related to earth sciences and the environment. These challenges are exacerbated when conveying lessons about geographic areas with limited access, such as oceans and coastlines (Louv, 2010). It is now more important than ever for environmental education to improve and adapt to our changing world. Educators may have the opportunity to bring these subjects to life by using media content such as podcasts to introduce students to new places and the scientists, managers and educators that work in those spaces. In the United States, there exists …

Ecodrama And Sustainable Theatre: A Handbook For Creating Remarkable Change, Gigi Buddie

Pomona Senior Theses

The climate crisis is not new to us, nor are the art forms that have taken shape as vital components of the many activist movements that seek to save the planet. Yet, for the first time at Pomona College, a play about environmental devastation and our hand in it finally graced the stage of this progressive institution this past year. This mini handbook is a call-to-action (of sorts), one that stems from the idea that this should not be the last ecodrama performed at Pomona College. These chapters are structured and supported by both experience and research – formulated from …

Let Us Be The Fish Who Grow Legs: A Curriculum Guide For Linking Prison Industrial Complex Abolition, Environmental Justice, And State Power, Tess Gibbs

Scripps Senior Theses

This curriculum guide is designed to connect students’ understandings of environmental problems and injustices to their understandings of prison industrial complex (PIC) abolition, with the ultimate intention of cultivating the knowledge and imaginative practices to develop abolitionist-aligned solutions to environmental justice (EJ) problems outside of frameworks that rely upon state sanction. Students will connect the mutual causal forces of environmental injustices and the carceral state; explore intersections of environmental and carceral politics; and finish the course with broadened understandings of humans’ real and unrealized relationships with each other and the more-than-human world. The guide is intended to be worked through …

Assessing The Knowledge On Sustainability And Barriers To Daily Sustainable Practices Among Faculty And Students In Higher Education: The Case Of Eastern Illinois University, Joel Edem Holison

Masters Theses

The concept of sustainable development gained prominence with the publication of the Brundtland Report, which emphasized economic progress without jeopardizing future generations' well-being. Following that, the Education for Sustainability (EfS) program was created by the United Nations to raise sustainability awareness. However, the transition to sustainable living is fraught with difficulties, including a lack of knowledge, financial constraints, infrastructure gaps, and political ideologies. This study focuses on sustainable practices among Eastern Illinois University (EIU) students and faculty, as well as the barriers to daily sustainable behaviors. As independent variables influencing sustainable practices, the study evaluates sustainability knowledge/awareness, personal financial situation, …

Confluence: Evaluating The Individual Learning Outcomes Of A Combined Citizen Science And Environmental Education Project, Evan A. Harms

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Citizen Science has moved beyond a methodological tool for ecologists to crowdsource data to a novel platform for environmental and informal science education. However, few studies document the individual learning outcomes of citizen science as an educational tool, particularly in youth or extension education. This quantitative study focused on evaluating the individual learning outcomes of an environmental education and citizen science non-formal learning experience about water quality.

In this study, an existing lesson plan using four sequenced activities was adapted for use with West Virginia 4-H summer camps in 2022. Potential outcome areas were first identified from foundational environmental education …

Middle Savannah River: An A/R/Tographic Ecopedagogical Ethnography Experimenting With Rhizomatic Perspectives, Lisa Augustine-Chizmar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research is an experiment in perspective. Using the four commonplaces (Schwab, 1978), I practiced letting the Savannah River teach me what there is to know about the water, the land, the people, and the other entities that depend on ki through artistic, ethnographic, and ecopedagogical lenses. The ethnographic findings describe the social actors that depend on ki and give a voice to the River. The a/r/tographic findings display the River on a canvas map through two hundred years using paint, clay, photography, video, abstract acrylics, and fabric. Together, these methods contribute to a unique ecopedagogical journey. This word cloud …