Environmental Education Commons^™

I'M Trying To Love Garbage (2021) By Bethany Barton, Peter Shea

Picture Books

Bethany Barton writes great books for kids about how minds change. In this one, the character’s arc is from thinking about garbage as just smelly icky stuff through empathizing (a little) with the creatures that feed on garbage, to eventually coming to see that all garbage is not equal; some needs special handling or it will clutter life up for a long time. The conclusion: I want to act like someone who thinks more about garbage, about what trash I create and where it ends up.”

How To Be A Nature Detective (1966) By Millicent E. Selsam, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

Coming up with the most reasonable explanation of the available clues is something we all do on a daily basis. This book describes animal tracks as clues from which children can make inferences about what kind of animal left them and what they were doing when they did.

Leak (2021) By Kate Reed Petty, Maughn Rollins Gregory, Megan Jane Laverty

Middle Grades Books

Aspiring 12-year-old journalist Ruth is looking for her next big story when she and her friend Jonathan discover dead fish and strange black slime at the lake near their town. Through a frustrating, risky, and sometimes funny journey, she learns about scientific and journalistic objectivity and the importance of both - and of community support - in environmental activism.

Wolves Of Yellowstone (2022) By Catherine Barr, Samantha Piede

Middle Grades Books

When wolves were eliminated from Yellowstone National Park in the early 20th century, the park's ecosystem began to deteriorate, leading to elk overpopulation, overgrazing, and environmental collapse. The degradation of the park spawned a rewilding project, in which wolves from Canadian packs were reintroduced to the park. The process and effects of this rewilding is captured in Catherine Barr's The Wolves of Yellowstone, which takes on the philosophical complexity of not only ecological interconnection, but the ethical complications involved trying to restore a species that is not universally lauded by locals.

Does Earth Feel? (2021) By Marc Majewski, Alaina Gostomski

Picture Books

With spare prose and evocative paintings, author-illustrator Marc Majewski asks fourteen critical questions -- including Does Earth feel calm? Does Earth feel curious? Does Earth feel hurt? Does Earth feel heard? -- to encourage active thinking and discussion about our planet.

Blackout (2011) By John Rocco, Peter Shea

Picture Books

In this Caldecott Honor Book, Blackout, a hot urban night takes an interesting turn when the power goes out and an urban family -- each busy with something that requires electricity -- discover new things about themselves and their community.

Hurricane (2021) By John Rocco, Peter Shea

Picture Books

This book pictures the devastation of today's powerful storms. The hurricane wrecks things and drives people from their homes. The boy in the story finds his beloved dock broken up, where he used to swim and fish. The story centers on cooperation and neighborhood resilience: people can get through disasters if they work together.

Something, Someday (2023) By Amanda Gorman, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

When children think philosophically they inevitably will, and unquestionably should engage in social criticism. In this picture book by the first U.S. National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, a Black child in an urban apartment complex surrounded by garbage cleans it up and plants a vegetable and flower garden, enlisting the help of others and overcoming some setbacks. Gorman's text warns children that some adults may say they're too small, or that it’s none of their business, or that what they're trying won’t work, but she reassures them that sometimes it’s OK to ignore those people.

We Are Water Protectors (2020) By Carole Lindstrom, Peter Shea

Picture Books

We Are Water Protectors is a beautiful and partisan book, and the teacher or parent who wants to help children to think better could not find a better place to start, giving the child of whatever age the opportunity to feel the force of this plea, and then to recognize the need to understand the political context within which this issue arises, and the honest differences of opinion about policy that arise in an already disrupted world.

Becoming A Good Creature (2020) By Sy Montgomery, Samantha Piede

Picture Books

Becoming a Good Creature outlines moral lessons Sy Montgomery has learned from interactions with animals, both domestic and wild, such as “Love Little Lives,” “Don’t Be Afraid,” and “Make Your Own Family.” Our willingness to be attentive to other creatures – not just the ones like us with “two legs,” but also “four or even eight” – opens up the possibility of finding something ethically significant in these encounters. She tells us that “all have taught me something important about how to be a good creature in the world.”

Greta Thunberg (2021) By Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

Greta Thunberg learned about climate change in school at the age of eight, when she persuaded her parents to make lifestyle changes to reduce their carbon footprint. At fifteen, after winning a writing competition about the environment, she came up with the idea of a school strike, inspired by student walkouts in the United States to protest legislative inaction on gun control. Though she couldn’t interest anyone else in the idea, her one-child strikes soon gained international attention. Greta’s story demonstrates some of the challenges and gifts that neurodiverse children bring to activism. This book also prods adults to think …

Snail With The Right Heart (2021) By Maria Popova, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

When a London scientist found a garden snail whose shell that spiraled left to right—opposite from others of its species—he sent it to the University of Nottingham for study. The snail’s internal organs were also arranged on the opposite side from other snails, including a heart on the right side of its body—a one-in-a-million condition known as situs inversus, which also occurs in humans. In explaining the snail’s story in terms of genetic evolution and biological reproduction, The Snail with the Right Heart also raises philosophical questions about the role of genetics, education, and personal choice in determining who …

Assessment Of Switchgrass-Based Bioenergy Supply Using Gis-Based Fuzzy Logic And Network Optimization In Missouri (U.S.A.), Gia Nguyen, Erik Lyttek, Pankaj Lal, Taylor Wieczerak, Pralhad Burli

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Bioenergy has been globally recognized as one of the sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels. An assured supply of biomass feedstocks is a crucial bottleneck for the bioenergy industry emanating from uncertainties in land-use changes and future prices. Analytical approaches deriving from geographical information systems (GIS)-based analysis, mathematical modeling, optimization analyses, and empirical techniques have been widely used to evaluate the potential for bioenergy feedstock. In this study, we propose a three-phase methodology integrating fuzzy logic, network optimization, and ecosystem services assessment to estimate potential bioenergy supply. The fuzzy logic analysis uses multiple spatial criteria to identify suitable biomass cultivating regions. …

Foliar Application Of Low Concentrations Of Titanium Dioxide And Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles To The Common Sunflower Under Field Conditions, Marek Kolenčík, Dávid Ernst, Martin Urík, Ľuba Ďurišová, Marek Bujdoš, Martin Šebesta, Edmund Dobročka, Samuel Kšiňan, Ramakanth Illa, Qian Yu, Huan Feng, Ivan Černý, Veronika Holišová, Gabriela Kratošová

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Nano-fertilisers have only recently been introduced to intensify plant production, and there still remains inadequate scientific knowledge on their plant-related effects. This paper therefore compares the effects of two nano-fertilisers on common sunflower production under field conditions. The benefits arising from the foliar application of micronutrient-based zinc oxide fertiliser were compared with those from the titanium dioxide plant-growth enhancer. Both the zinc oxide (ZnO) and titanium dioxide (TiO₂) were delivered by foliar application in nano-size at a concentration of 2.6 mg·L⁻¹. The foliar-applied nanoparticles (NPs) had good crystallinity and a mean size distribution under 30 nm. …

Storm Surges In The Bohai Sea: The Role Of Waves And Tides, Yuanyi Li, Huan Feng, Guillaume Vigouroux, Dekui Yuan, Guangyu Zhang, Xiaodi Ma, Kun Lei

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

A storm surge is a complex phenomenon in which waves, tide and current interact. Even though wind is the predominant force driving the surge, waves and tidal phase are also important factors that influence the mass and momentum transport during the surge. Devastating storm surges often occur in the Bohai Sea, a semi-enclosed shallow sea in North China, due to extreme storms. However, the effects of waves on storm surges in the Bohai Sea have not been quantified and the mechanisms responsible for the higher surges that affect part of the Bohai Sea have not been thoroughly studied. In this …

Green Strategic Planning Approach For International Shipping Activities, Xiaofang Wu, Luoping Zhang, Huan Feng

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Sustainability is a long-term and ultimate goal for international shipping, although it is slowly making progress. The shipping perspective that moves away from “port-to-port” operations to “door-to-door” services also requires international shipping to take a long-term and holistic view instead of fragmented efforts. How to achieve the long-term sustainability goal becomes a key issue for door-to-door international shipping. Hence, green strategic planning for door-to-door international shipping was proposed with green development that puts forward the eco-centric point of view as its basic theory for sustainability. This study used a strategic decision-making approach, a so-called multi-dimensional decision-making (MDDM), coupled with the …

Effect Of Foliar Spray Application Of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles On Quantitative, Nutritional, And Physiological Parameters Of Foxtail Millet (Setaria Italica L.) Under Field Conditions, Marek Kolenčík, Dávid Ernst, Matej Komár, Martin Šebesta, Martin Urík, Edmund Dobročka, Ivan Černý, Ramakanth Illa, Raghavendra Kanike, Qian Yu, Huan Feng, Denisa Orlová, Gabriela Kratošová

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

It has been shown that the foliar application of inorganic nano-materials on cereal plants during their growth cycle enhances the rate of plant productivity by providing a micro-nutrient source. We therefore studied the effects of foliarly applied ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) on Setaria italica L. foxtail millet’s quantitative, nutritional, and physiological parameters. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the ZnO NPs have an average particle size under 20 nm and dominant spherically shaped morphology. Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry then confirmed ZnO NP homogeneity, and X-ray diffraction verified their high crystalline and wurtzite-structure symmetry. Although plant height, thousand grain weight, and grain …

Using A Mixed-Methods Approach To Understand Urban Children's Nature Conceptions, Ecological Worldviews And Environmental Perceptions And Preferences Before And After Attending An Environmental Education Program, Alejandra Maria Bozzolasco

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The main objective of this dissertation is to utilize multiple instruments to measure urban children’s nature conceptions, ecological worldviews, and environmental perceptions and preferences, and to determine whether they are impacted by an environmental education (EE) intervention. This information is critical today in light of growing urbanization that is considered a contributor to nature deficit disorder (NDD) in which children, particularly urban children, are growing up distanced from the natural world, thereby impacting children’s development, public health, and the environment. Urban children from northern New Jersey who attended the New Jersey School of Conservation’s (NJSOC) EE program participated in this …

The Effectiveness Of Venue Strategies For Environmental Communication In Non-Agricultural, School Integrated Pest Management Campaigns, Marcia L. Anderson

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Pesticides have become a preferred approach to controlling pest problems in many, schools and childcare centers, despite the exposure hazards to children and the environment. The only other place where children spend more time is in their homes. Children are continually and unknowingly exposed to pests and pesticides while in and around school buildings. Pesticides are used on athletic fields, play areas, in cafeterias, classrooms, and more. Reducing the use of pesticides from the school environment is critical to lowering children’s total exposure.

This research tests ways of communicating about Integrated Pest Management to a number of school-related target audiences. …

Stimulating Students’ Interest In And Curiosity About Nature Through Frequent And Brief Trips Outdoors, Joanne Claire Kornoelje

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This study considers whether frequent and brief trips outdoors can affect students’ interest in and curiosity about nature. Recent research shows that people - and children in specific - are not spending as much time outdoors as in previous generations. This has raised concerns that today’s children will be less likely to champion environmental issues as adults, due to their lack of connection to the environment that surrounds and supports them.

I took my five sixth-grade science classes outdoors eleven times for ten-minute field trips during the 2009-10 school year. Using inquiry-based instruction, the initial trips were focused observation. Subsequent …

Effects Of Pre- And Post-Trip Activities Associated With A Residential Environmental Education Experience At The New Jersey School Of Conservation On Students’ Attitudes Toward The Environment, Lisa Cavern

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Scholars of both general education and environmental education (EE) have suggested using targeted activities before and after field experiences may increase the assimilation of desired concepts by students (Ballantyne & Packer, 1996; Bogner, 1998; Dettmann- Easler & Pease, 1999; Flavell, 1979; Knapp & Poff, 2001; Marzano, Gaddy, & Dean, 2000). A search of the EE literature using the ERIC database for the years 1967-present found two studies that explored the use of additional activities to prepare for or reinforce concepts from zoo and garden programs (Farmer & Wott, 1995; Gutierrez de White & Jacobson, 1994), but none related to residential …