Environmental Education Commons^™

Foreword, Tim O'Connell, Garrett Hutson

Research in Outdoor Education

The article offers information related to papers that were published in the publication "Research in Outdoor Education" Volume 14, as well as acknowledging the efforts of all who contributed to the publication.

Front Matter, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors (Ceo)

Research in Outdoor Education

The Coalition for Education in the Outdoors is a non-profit network of outdoor and environmental education centers, nature centers, conservation and recreation organizations, outdoor education and experiential education associations, institutions of higher learning, public and private schools, fish and wildlife agencies, and businesses that share a mission the support and furtherance of outdoor education and its goals.

This article includes the Editors and Research Committee for Volume 14 as well as the Table of Contents.

The North Carolina Outward Bound School Course Impression Survey: A Psychometric Investigation, W. Brad Faircloth, Andrew J. Bobilya, Alan W. Ewert

Research in Outdoor Education

This study investigated the development and psychometric properties of the North Carolina Outward Bound School Course Impression Survey (NCOBSCIS). The NCOBSCIS measures character development, leadership, and environmental service, and was adapted from the previously established Outward Bound Outcomes Instrument (OBOI). The purpose of this study was to both conduct a psychometric evaluation of the NCOBSCIS and to also describe the processes that were used to develop and validate a series of outcome measures. These processes are applicable to other programs interested in measuring participant outcomes.

Outcomes From An Undergraduate Cadet Women's Backpacking Experience, Guy Ilagen, Jill Ilagen, Annie N. Simpson, Todd Shealy, Jennifer Bennett-Mintz, Kally Mccormick

Research in Outdoor Education

Women undergraduates at military colleges are likely to experience challenges including heightened stress, isolation, and discrimination. Wilderness-based programs show promising outcomes in an array of areas including stress-coping, fitness motivation, self-efficacy, social support, and improved cognitive functioning. This mixed-methods exploratory study examined outcomes for 17 cadet women (N=17) who participated in a preparatory workshop series and backpacking event. Quantitative data indicated the backpacking workshop series was associated with decreases in perceived stress (p < .05). The backpacking trip was associated with increases in self-efficacy (p < .01). Cadets attributed decreases in perceived stress and increases in self-efficacy to interpersonal/intrapersonal factors and the wilderness/ backpacking experience. These results support the use of wilderness experience to bolster coping and wellness among cadet women.

Personal Meaning Mapping As A Tool To Uncover Learning From An Out-Of-Doors Free-Choice Learning Garden, Deborah L. Bailey, John H. Falk

Research in Outdoor Education

Garden-based learning (GBL), a form of outdoor education contextualized and framed within unpredictable and real-world learning environments, is ideally suited to the teaching of science. However, the vast majority of GBL educational research has utilized a cognitive and positivist research paradigm, one that artificially restricts the investigative lens. The goal of the larger project from which this paper was drawn was to develop a better understanding of how youth perceived a garden experience. This paper shares the affordances and constraints of the constructivist framework utilized and the primary measurement tool, Person Meaning Mapping (PMM). Despite some inherent limitations, the PMM …

The Function Of Field Study: Comparison Of Limited And Full Field Experience Courses, Lauren Fine, Telyn Peterson, Mat Duerden, Riley Nelson, John Bennion

Research in Outdoor Education

Fieldwork, an experiential and outdoor component of a traditional lecture class, has been effective in improving students' content knowledge and attitudes. However, most studies of these courses use a full lecture course as the comparison group rather than comparing amounts or types of fieldwork. This study compares two classes that incorporate fieldwork (n > = 18 and 12 participants, respectively) and uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze changes in content knowledge, self-efficacy, and perceived value of the subject (entomology). Pre- and post-test scores suggest that information memorization is best taught in a traditional classroom environment. Qualitative data illustrate …

Identity Awareness Through Outdoor Activities For Adolescents With Serious Illnesses, Ann Gillard

Research in Outdoor Education

The purpose of this study was to (1) identify which activities in a seven-day outdoor-based program most related to adolescents’ identity awareness and (2) investigate potential changes in participants’ identity awareness. Seventy-four adolescents aged 16 – 18 with serious illnesses (e.g., cancer, sickle cell disease) answered an open-ended question about a time during the program when they “discovered who they were,” and completed an 11-item identity awareness scale. Results showed that structured activities (e.g., night climb, fire council) and unstructured activities (e.g., personal reflection, talking with others) most related to participants’ identity awareness, and that identity awareness increased some or …

Ex-Situ Conservation Programs: Worthwhile?, Nicolette Sliwa, Aaron Sieve

Biology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

The effectiveness of conservation programs was researched, specifically within zoos, and their attempts to repopulate areas with captive-born individuals of endangered species. There are major biological and economic concerns with these programs focused on, including potential genetic adaptation to captivity, effects of inbreeding, and if this is a truly worthwhile use of funds to restore a species. Looking at the black-footed ferret, the whooping crane, and other supposed successful captive-breeding programs, it is explored whether reintroduced individuals thrive in their new habitats sufficiently enough to contribute to the restoration of the species, and more broadly, their ecosystems.

Ua12/13 Western Kentucky University Office Of Sustainability 2016 Year In Review, Christian Ryan, Sustainability Coordinator

Sustainability Publications and Resources

No abstract provided.

The Prairie Post Quarterly Newsletter Of The High Plains Regional Climate Center: January 2016, Martha Shulski, Natalie Umphlett, Crystal J. Stiles

Prairie Post: Quarterly Newsletter of the High Plains Regional Climate Center

Inside this issue:

Message from the director........................................1

Staff spotlight...........................1

HPRCC staff changes..............2

Product highlight....................2

Research highlight..................2

Partnership spotlight.............3

AWDN information.................4

Update on regional climate conditions..................................4

Outreach/engagement.........5

Recent and upcoming travel and activities.............................6

Late Holocene Expansion Of Ponderosa Pine (Pinus Ponderosa) In The Central Rocky Mountains, Usa, Jodi R. Norris, Julio L. Betancourt, Stephen T. Jackson

United States National Park Service: Publications

Aim: Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) experienced one of the most extensive and rapid post-glacial plant migrations in western North America. We used plant macrofossils from woodrat (Neotoma) middens to reconstruct its spread in the Central Rocky Mountains, identify other vegetation changes coinciding with P. ponderosa expansion at the same sites, and relate P. ponderosa migrational history to both its modern phylogeography and to a parallel expansion by Utah juniper (Juniperus osteosperma).

Location: Central Rocky Mountains, Wyoming and Montana, and Black Hills, Wyoming and South Dakota, USA.

Methods: Plant macrofossils were analysed in …

Animism Among Western Buddhists, Daniel S. Capper

Faculty Publications

Myriad instances of animist phenomena abound in the Buddhist world, but due to the outdated concepts of thinkers such as Edward Tylor, James George Frazer, and Melford Spiro, commonly scholars perceive this animism merely as the work of local religions, not as deriving from Buddhism itself. However, when one follows a number of contemporary scholars and employs a new, relational concept of animism that is based on respectful recognition of nonhuman personhoods, a different picture emerges. The works of Western Buddhists such as Stephanie Kaza, Philip Kapleau Roshi, and Gary Snyder express powerful senses of relational animism that arise specifically …

Effects Of The Green Life Nature Education Program For 4th Grade Students Who Attend Bay Area Title One Schools: A Mixed-Methods Study, Jessica Blundell

Doctoral Dissertations

This explanatory sequential design mixed-methods evaluation measures the effects of the GLNE program on (a) students’ personal and social skills (b) students’ stewardship of the environment (c) students’ knowledge and understanding of science concepts. Quantitative survey data and qualitative data from a phenomenologically-based study are analyzed and compared in order to understand the impact of attending Green Life Nature Education (GLNE) program, the only Bay Area Residential Outdoor School that serves urban youth with no-cost programing.

The quantitative data from student surveys implies that in general, attending GLNE has a neutral impact on students. While there were several negative impacts …

University Of North Florida Environmental Center Annual Report 2016, Natalie Sassine, Tiffany Torres, James W. Taylor, Maria Mark

Annual Reports

2016 Annual Report of the Environmental Center at the University of North Florida

Until We Meet Again, Richard Snow, Mary Snow

Publications

As long ago as 1896, Svanti Arrenius conducted a scientific analysis of the relationship between carbon dioxide (CO2) and atmospheric temperatures. Several decades later, GS Callender collected and compiled temperature data from around the world and found there had been an increase in global temperatures. He hypothesized that the rising temperatures were resulting from increasing levels of CO2. These early studies piqued the interest of Gilbert Plass in the mid-20th century who endeavored to determine how CO2 affects temperature. In his effort to determine the possible effects that higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere were having on the energy …

An Examination Of Intrinsic Existence Value Towards Wildlife Of Columbus Zoo And Aquariums Tourists: Evaluating The Impact Of Behind The Scenes Programming, Robert Maxwell Lakes

Online Theses and Dissertations

Changes in climate and the corresponding environmental issues are major concerns facing the world today. Human consumption, which is leading the rapid depletion of the earth’s finite resources and causing a dramatic loss of biodiversity, is largely to blame (Pearson, Lowry, Dorrian, & Litchfield, 2014). American zoos and aquariums are positioned to create positive experiential relationships between zoo tourists and animals that have the potential to positively change the zoo tourists’ conservation behaviors. Challenges to changing the conservation behaviors of zoo tourists are many. One particularly important challenge is conservation/environmental education. Zoos and aquariums aim to provide effective and quality …

Role-Play Simulations For Climate Change Adaptation Education And Engagement, Danya Rumore, Todd Schenk, Lawrence Susskind

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

In order to effectively adapt to climate change, public officials and other stakeholders need to rapidly enhance their understanding of local risks and ability to collaboratively and adaptively respond. We argue that science-based role-play simulation exercises, a type of ‘serious game’ involving face-to-face mock decision-making, have considerable potential as education and engagement tools for enhancing readiness to adapt. Prior research suggests role-play simulations and other serious games can foster public learning and encourage collective action in public policy-making contexts. However, the effectiveness of such exercises in the context of climate change adaptation education and engagement has heretofore been underexplored. We …

Aquatic Science Education Pathway From Headwaters To Ocean Is A Model For Place-Based Experiential Learning For Protecting And Stewarding Gulf States' Freshwater And Marine Resources, Rudolph A. Rosen, Erin Scanlon, Johnnie Smith

Water Resources Science and Technology Faculty Publications (Archived)

Teachers, students and parents today have a bewildering and fast-moving array of technology innovations that purportedly will help students learn and teachers teach. Unfortunately, it is hard for anyone to grasp what works, let alone what works best. Texas Aquatic Science has become a model for enhanced water education that has rapidly risen to the top of search engine rankings for aquatic science. The project was conceived in the course of developing means to integrate use of various new mobile and interactive technologies into middle and high school curricula about water from headwaters to the Gulf of Mexico. The researchers …

Success Stories And Emerging Themes In Conservation Physiology, Christine L. Madliger, Steven J. Cooke, Erica J. Crespi, Jennifer L. Funk, Kevin R. Hultine, Kathleen E. Hunt, Jason R. Rohr, Brent J. Sinclair, Cory D. Suski, Craig K. R. Willis, Oliver P. Love

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The potential benefits of physiology for conservation are well established and include greater specificity of management techniques, determination of cause–effect relationships, increased sensitivity of health and disturbance monitoring and greater capacity for predicting future change. While descriptions of the specific avenues in which conservation and physiology can be integrated are readily available and important to the continuing expansion of the discipline of ‘conservation physiology’, to date there has been no assessment of how the field has specifically contributed to conservation success. However, the goal of conservation physiology is to foster conservation solutions and it is therefore important to assess whether …

Adaptation On A Budget: How Vietnamese Innovators Are Trying To Design Their Way Out Of Climate Change, Shanti R. Johnson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the rapidly developing Mekong Delta of Vietnam, young innovators are facing a challenge far greater than simply trying to catch up with the wealthier world. In a growing trend, the next generation of Vietnamese is acting under a common understanding: climate change is real, it’s here and the time to respond is growing short.

For over a decade, Southern Vietnam has consistently been ranked by international organizations like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as one of the most vulnerable places in the world to the impacts of climate change. That vulnerability is heightened by the fact that the …

The Role Of The State, Multinational Oil Companies, International Law & The International Community: Intersection Of Human Rights & Environmental Degradation Climate Change In The 21st Century Caused By Traditional Extractive Practices, The Amazon Rainforest, Indigenous People And Universal Jurisdiction To Resolve The Accountability Issue, Marcela Cabrera Luna

Master's Theses

Local, national and international conventions that protect indigenous sovereignty and their territories, where many of the resources are extracted from by multinational corporations (MNCs) particularly oil, the number one commodity of the world and cause of climate change, continue to be jeopardized because of the lack of a clear international legal framework that can protect them and potentially hold multinationals accountable for their actions. These practices are causing not only environmental issues to the indigenous and surrounding communities, but climate change is in fact, the real human rights issue of the 21^st century and it affects everyone. By using …

Engineering A Healthier Watershed: Middle School Students Use Engineering Design To Lessen The Impact Of Their Campus' Impervious Surfaces On Their Local Watershed, Elizabeth Claire Gardner

Dissertations and Theses

It is important that students understand not only how their local watershed functions, but also how it is being impacted by impervious surfaces. Additionally, students need experience exploring the scientific and engineering practices that are necessary for a strong STEM background. With this knowledge students can be empowered to tackle this real and local problem using engineering design, a powerful practice gaining momentum and clarity through its prominence in the recent Framework for K-12 Science Education. Twenty classes of suburban sixth-graders participated in a new five-week Watershed Engineering Design Unit taught by their regular science teachers. Students engaged in scientific …

Seismic Surveys And Marine Turtles: An Underestimated Global Threat?, Sarah E. Nelms, Wendy Dow Piniak, Caroline R. Weir, Brendan J. Godley

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Seismic surveys are widely used in marine geophysical oil and gas exploration, employing airguns to produce sound-waves capable of penetrating the sea floor. In recent years, concerns have been raised over the biological impacts of this activity, particularly for marine mammals. While exploration occurs in the waters of at least fifty countries where marine turtles are present, the degree of threat posed by seismic surveys is almost entirely unknown. To investigate this issue, a mixed-methods approach involving a systematic review, policy comparison and stakeholder analysis was employed and recommendations for future research were identified. This study found that turtles have …

Using Collaborations To Improve Campus Recycling, James Taylor

Campus Sustainability

Presentation made to the ACUHO-I / APPA Housing Facilities Conference, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015 in St. Petersburg, FL.

Know Tommorrow Brown University Poster, Shepard Fairey, Risd Archives

Ecology and Environment

Poster for Brown University student event to demand action to counter climate change. "Brown emPOWER is joining dozens of colleges across the country for Know Tomorrow, a national day of action to raise awareness about climate change and its consequences. 2015 is the year for climate action as world leaders meet for the UN climate talks in Paris to sign a global agreement on climate. On October 2nd, join us for an evening of live music, engaging speakers, and environmental action on the Main Green at Brown University! Featuring: Kerry Kennedy, What Cheer? Brigade, Voces Verdes- Latino Leadership in …

The Marketing Of Sacrifice, Enda Mcgovern

Presidential Seminar on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition

Slides from a presentation made by Enda McGovern from the Department of Marketing at Sacred Heart University to the University's Board of Trustees. He outlines plans for a class to marketing students whose core text will be Pope Francis' encyclical on June 18, 2015, which lays out and argument for a new partnership between science and religion to combat human-driven climate change.

The Prairie Post Quarterly Newsletter Of The High Plains Regional Climate Center- October 2015, Martha Shulski, Natalie Umphlett, Bill Sorensen, Glen Roebke, Crystal J. Stiles

Prairie Post: Quarterly Newsletter of the High Plains Regional Climate Center

Inside this issue:

Message from the director........................................1

Staff spotlight...........................1

New website design and products.....................................2

Training workshops................3

AWDN information.................4

Update on regional climate conditions and El Niño..........4

Research highlight..................5

Outreach/engagement.........5

Recent and upcoming travel and activities.............................6

Environmental Education In Vietnam: A Case Study At Le Loi Elementary School, Emily Heck Heck

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of the research I conducted for this Independent Study Project was to get an in-depth understanding of how elementary school teachers and students think about the environment, environmental problems, and how to include environmental themes in education in Vietnam. I chose to focus on primary school-aged children, as they are a generation growing up in an era of global warming and daunting threats to the environment brought on by human activity. I conducted my research at Le Loi Elementary School in Hue, Vietnam, where I used a variety of research methods to learn from teachers and students including …

Assessment Of Coral Health And Fish Diversity In The Fringing Reefs Of Porvenir Island And Korbisky Island, Guna Yala, Panama, Emily Waddell

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Coral reefs are the most diverse and productive ecosystems on Earth, serving as important habitats to millions of organisms; however, they are disappearing at alarming rates. The major influences causing their decline are the combined effects of global climate change and increased industrialization, urbanization, and agriculture. Previous studies have correlated high coral coverage with high fish diversity; therefore, as coral reefs disappear, so too does fish diversity. This study assesses the health of the fringe reefs of Porvenir Island and Korbisky Island in Guna Yala, Panama by recording the live coral, bleached coral, diseased coral, and algae cover of each …

The Environment And Civil War: Exploring The Relationship Between The Environmental Performance Index And Incidence Of Internal Armed Conflict, Katerina N. Krohn

Student Publications

The state of the environment is receiving increasing attention. Environmental quality’s possible relationship to violent conflict attracts both popular and academic interest. Prior research has found support for the idea that environmental scarcity is related to higher occurrences of civil war. There have been few comprehensive quantitative studies regarding this relationship. This study tests a more general argument that higher environmental quality can lead to fewer occurrences of internal armed conflict. The study utilizes an environmental performance index found in the Quality of Government Standard Dataset to test its hypothesis. The study finds that the higher the environmental performance index …