Thesis advisor: Katherine L. McNeill / Environmental understanding is highly relevant in today's global society. Social, economic, and political structures are connected to the state of environmental degradation and exploitation, and disproportionately affect those in poor or urban communities (Brulle and Pellow, 2006; Executive Order No. 12898, 1994). Environmental education must challenge the way we live, and our social and ecological quality of life, with the goal of responsible action. The development of a learning progression in environmental thinking, along with a corresponding assessment, could provide a tool that could be used across environmental education programs to help evaluate and guide programmatic decisions. This study sought to determine if a scale could be constructed that allowed individuals to be ordered along a continuum of environmental thinking. First, I developed the Environmental Thinking Learning Progression, a scale of environmental thinking from novice to advanced, based on the current available research and literature. The scale consisted of four subscales, each measuring a different aspect of environmental thinking: place consciousness, human connection, agency, and science concepts. Second, a measurement instrument was developed, so that the data appropriately fit the model using Rasch analysis. A Rasch analysis of the data placed respondents along a continuum, given the range of item difficulty for each subscale. Across three iterations of instrument revision and data collection, findings indicated that the items were ordered in a hierarchical way that corresponded to the construct of environmental thinking. Comparisons between groups showed that the average score of respondents who had participated in environmental education programs was significantly higher than those who had not. A comparison between males and females showed no significant difference in average measure, however, there were varied significant differences between how racial/ethnic groups performed. Overall, the results suggest that the Environmental Thinking Learning Progression and instrument are useful and accurate tools to measure individuals along a continuum from novice to advanced. This can be helpful for environmental education programs for use in evaluation and program development within a diverse context. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

The purpose with this essay is to find out how aware students are about the environment, andif they believe that their actions can influence the environment. I have used both earlierresearch and questionnaire surveys in order to fulfill the purpose. In earlier research, I haveused research based on materials that are scientific. According to the researchers it isimportant that the children and young people become involved and dedicated to theenvironment and its surrounding world. It is important to listen to the children's thoughts andvisions as they are aware about what happens, but do not reflect on the worst, but hope that itbecomes an improvement in the future. The questionnaire survey that was implementedcovered 72 students divided in four classes, two from grade 5 and two from grade 6. Thesurvey contained 11 open questions while eight partially was open with subsequent questions.The result shows that the students from the classes think that the environment is important andthey do what they can in order to get a good environment. There were students from allclasses that did not care at all about the environment and after a summarizing assessment ofthe result shows that most students today are worried and believe that the future can becomeworse. The result also shows that the students want more people to begin to think more aboutthe environment and the choices we do in order to make the environment better. / Syftet med detta arbete är att ta reda på hur medvetna elever är om miljön, samt om de trorderas handlingar kan påverka miljön. Jag har använt mig av både tidigare forskning ochenkätundersökningar för att uppfylla mitt syfte. I tidigare forskning har jag använt mig avforskningsbaserat material. Enligt forskarna är det viktigt att barn och ungdomar blir delaktigaoch engagerade om miljön och sin omvärld. Det är viktigt att lyssna till barnens tankar ochvisioner då de är medvetna om vad som händer men tänker inte på det värsta men hoppas attdet blir en förbättring i framtiden. Enkätundersökningen som genomfördes omfattade 72elever uppdelade på fyra klasser, två från årskurs 5 och två från årskurs 6. Enkäten bestod av11 öppna frågor medan åtta delvis var öppna med påföljande frågor. Resultatet visar atteleverna från klasserna tycker att miljön är viktig och att de gör vad de kan för att få en bramiljö. Det fanns elever från klasserna som inte alls brydde sig om miljön och efter ensammanfattande bedömning av resultatet visar det att de flesta elever idag är oroliga och troratt framtiden kommer bli sämre. Resultatet visar även att eleverna vill att fler människor skabörja tänka mer på miljön och på de val som görs för att miljön ska bli bättre.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:42:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Elisabete Priedols.pdf: 6361542 bytes, checksum: 0669759e1bffb6ec82103433c77ffcdc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-08 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / This work is dedicated to retrieve the path of the Forest Museum "Octavio Vecchi" since its conception by analyzing the environmental concern spread in its eighty years of existence. Since there is lack of previous approaches, this exploratory and descriptive case study is characterized by document analysis, interviews and direct observation. Stand out characters interposed in the institution's history, who helped directly or indirectly to interdisciplinarily diversify its legacy. Iniciating in 1931, in Sao Paulo, the museum was created for scientific purposes and for the study of forestry in Brazil. It became clear at the beginning of this investigation the museum special concern on educational aspects and spreading of an environmental culture. Following the path levels suggested by Donald Worster to write Environmental History, the analysis of both documents and interviews started from a holistic look at the museum visitors speech searching for environmental awareness. We conclude that the relevance of this institution and its founder in the production of knowledge and construction of environmental concerns in order to reforest São Paulo and Brazil amid the spread of a culture of forests , would be included as references to Brazilian environmental history and be object of study and source of research, aiming at future academic and literary works / Este trabalho se dedica a resgatar a trajetória do Museu Florestal Octávio Vecchi desde a sua idealização, analisando o pensamento ambiental disseminado em seus oitenta anos de existência. Vista a escassez de abordagens anteriores sobre o assunto, este estudo de caso exploratório-descritivo caracteriza-se pelo uso e análise de documentos, entrevistas e observação direta. Permeando a história da instituição, destacam-se personagens que, direta ou indiretamente, contribuíram para diversificar o seu legado de maneira interdisciplinar. Inaugurado em 1931 na cidade de São Paulo, o museu foi criado para fins científicos e para o estudo da silvicultura brasileira. Mas, no início desta investigação, ficou evidente a ênfase dada à dimensão educacional e à propagação de uma cultura ambiental. Tomando como fio condutor um dos níveis sugeridos por Donald Worster para se escrever a História Ambiental, a análise, tanto dos documentos quanto das entrevistas realizadas, partiu do olhar holístico no discurso dos frequentadores do museu, procurando detectar a conscientização ambiental. Conclui-se que, pela relevância da produção de conhecimentos e construção de significados ambientais visando o reflorestamento de São Paulo e do Brasil, em meio à disseminação de uma cultura de florestas , a instituição e seu idealizador poderiam constar como referências para a história ambiental brasileira como objeto de estudo e como fonte de pesquisa, vislumbrando futuros trabalhos acadêmicos e literários

Sustainability thinking and environmental questions are often in the center of news today. Our planet is changing and us humans need to change our lifestyle in order to avoid potentially devastating events. New laws and regulations, along with new sustainability goals, are constantly arriving around the world. Within the maritime industry, multiple emission goals have recently been implemented which puts a lot of pressure on shipping companies around the world. This thesis introduces a new sales-tool, The Ecolometer, which purpose is to support sales-processes within Volvo Penta. The tool uses a Product Environmental Footprint methodology to quantify different environmental impact categories based on the Nine Planetary Boundaries model. Based on the Planetary Boundaries model, some focus categories have been selected which has been set as requirements for the new tool. The tool have been validated and tested on some cases, where different propulsion systems where investigated. The results shows that the method and tool is useful and applicable to the intended purpose. The tool provides an efficient and easy way to quantify and optimize environmental impact throughout the lifecycle of a vessel, while in the meantime making sustainability thinking accessible, and popular within the industry. The thesis also shows how necessary it is for Volvo Penta the implement this tool, in order to ensure that their sustainability investments is going in the right direction. / Miljöfrågor ligger ofta i fokus i dagens debatt, och att tänka miljövänligt och hållbart blir allt mer ett socialt krav. Vår planet förändras, och vi människor måste göra stora förändringar i hur vi lever för att undvika att potentiella katastrofer uppstår. Nya lagar, regler och hållbarhetsmål är konstant uppsatta runt om i världen för hur vi ska leva. Inom den maritima industrin sattes nyligen stora mål upp i hur mycket utsläpp som tillåts för fartyg runt vilket sätter stor press på företag inom branschen runt om i världen. Denna uppsats introducerar ett nytt försäljningsverktyg, Ecolometern, vars syfte är att hjälpa och assistera Volvo Pentas säljprocesser. Verktyget använder sig av en Product Environmental Footprint metodologi för att kvantifiera miljöpåverkan utifrån olika kategorier i Nine Planetary Boundaries modellen. Baserat på modellen, har ett antal kategorier valts ut, som agerar kriterier för det nya verktyget. Verktyget har även blivit validerat och testa mot ett antal case, där olika drivlinor har blivit analyserade. Resultatet visar att metoden och verktyget är användbart för det uppsatta syftet. Verktyget ger ett effektivt men enkelt sätt att visa och optimera miljöpåverkan sett till hela livscykeln av ett fartyg, samtidigt som det gör hållbarhetstänk mer tillgängligt och populärt inom industrin. Uppsatsen visar också på nödvändigheten för Volvo Penta att implementera detta verktyg, för att försäkra sig om att deras hållbarhetssatsningar verkligen går åt rätt håll.