Environmental education (EE) is important for environmental awareness and stewardship. Involving youth and adults in EE ensures current and future generations will conserve natural resources. This thesis explores impacts of delivery methods on participants’ environmental attitudes and behaviors toward nature through middle school classroom- and camp-based EE instruction, focus group interviews with rural minority youth, and adult responses to aquatic conservation outreach messaging. I observed no difference in environmental attitudes between online versus in-person delivery of EE lessons for middle-schoolers. Outdoor-based learning may be more impactful for EE than experiential, classroom-based learning. Focus group outcomes suggested youth EE programs should capitalize on exploratory learning that allows for independence and safety from wildlife and community violence. Arkansas anglers who reside near aquatic invasive species (AIS) are more aware of Clean, Drain, Dry (CDD) messaging despite all anglers’ likeliness to perform pro-environmental behaviors. Consistent, targeted CDD messaging could help minimize AIS spread.

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According to research and authorities both young people and musicians are in need of hearing health knowledge in order to protect their own hearing. The purpose of this study was to investigate music teacher trainees’ experiences and thoughts concerning hearing health education at their music teacher programmes and internships. A sociocultural framework was used in this study. Semi-structured interviews were utilised to collect viewpoints and experiences from participants. The study involved 4 music teacher trainees, from three different music teacher training programmes. Two students were from the same music teacher programme. The data was analysed using thematic analysis. A sociocultural perspective was also used when analysing the data. The results indicate that music teacher students are not examined in hearing conservation. They do not seem to receive formative assessment in hearing conservation or hearing loss prevention. The staff is not necessarily knowledgeable in hearing conservation, even though they educate future music teachers. The staff does not seem to teach hearing conservation. Some supervisors at the internships were knowledgeable in hearing conservation and appeared to help their younger students understand risks. Other supervisors were not as knowledgeable and could be perceived as relatively passive when their students found themselves in risky sound environments without hearing protection. Social interactions which focused on hearing conservation or hearing loss prevention seemed to be quite absent at higher education and internships in Sweden. In conclusion, according to research and authorities, both youth and musicians are at risk and lack understanding of the risks in their sound environments. Music teachers are expected to teach hearing care according to the curriculum in Sweden, but many music teacher students do not feel well equipped to teach hearing care. It is important to have knowledgeable music teachers who can teach hearing care, as today's youth need this knowledge. The results and conclusions of this study suggest that society needs to equip music teachers at various levels of education with knowledge of hearing care. Several music education students in this study also expressed a desire for more hours of hearing care education at their music teacher programmes. These groups, music teachers and future music teachers, need knowledge of hearing care and hearing loss prevention to create cultures that emphasize hearing care and hearing health.

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In 1960 the Toronto Board of Education opened its first residential outdoor education centre, the Toronto Island Natural Science School, which signaled the beginning of an outdoor education movement in the city. By the mid-1980s the school boards and conservation authorities of Metropolitan Toronto had opened 12 residential outdoor education centres to serve Toronto public school students. This thesis seeks to explain why these programs were developed at this time and in this place. It finds that these programs fit into a broader ‘modernizing antimodernism’ paradigm which shaped many similar formal and informal educational programs in the twentieth century, and argues that democratic citizenship education was the major factor that was used to justify and shape them. This democratic citizenship education had three main components: education for democratic living, education for productive use of leisure time, and education for the environment, each of which is explored in depth.

In 1960 the Toronto Board of Education opened its first residential outdoor education centre, the Toronto Island Natural Science School, which signaled the beginning of an outdoor education movement in the city. By the mid-1980s the school boards and conservation authorities of Metropolitan Toronto had opened 12 residential outdoor education centres to serve Toronto public school students. This thesis seeks to explain why these programs were developed at this time and in this place. It finds that these programs fit into a broader ‘modernizing antimodernism’ paradigm which shaped many similar formal and informal educational programs in the twentieth century, and argues that democratic citizenship education was the major factor that was used to justify and shape them. This democratic citizenship education had three main components: education for democratic living, education for productive use of leisure time, and education for the environment, each of which is explored in depth.

The City of Dallas Environmental Education Initiative (EEI) is a hands-on, inquiry-based, K-12 water conservation education program that teaches students concepts about water and specific water conservation behaviors. Few descriptions and evaluations, especially quantitative in nature, of water conservation education programs have previously been conducted in the literature. This research measured the quantitative effects and impacts of the education program on water use in single-family homes in Dallas, Texas. A total of 2,122 students in 104 classrooms at three schools in the Dallas Independent School District received hands-on, inquiry-based water conservation education lessons and the average monthly water use (in gallons) in single-family homes was analyzed to measure whether or not there was a change in water use. The results showed that over a period of one calendar year the water use in the single-family homes within each school zone and throughout the entire research area in this study experienced a statistically significant decrease in water use of approximately 501 gallons per home per month (independent, t-test, p>0.001). Data from this research suggests that EEI is playing a role in decreasing the amount of water used for residential purposes. Additionally, this research demonstrates the use of a quantitative tool by which a water conservation education program’s effect on behavior change can be measured. This research shows great promise for reducing use and increasing the conservation of our world’s most precious resource.

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