<p> This thesis seeks to understand the impacts and outcomes of a six-week wildlife habitat monitoring internship on the 12 adolescent students who participated. The opportunity for this project sprung from my involvement in the design and implementation of this internship at Walking Mountains Science Center in Avon, Colorado. The interns spent six-weeks performing field data collection for the United States Forest Service, learning about ecology, botany, and environmental ethics, and earning college credit for their work. Inductive analysis was used to analyze data from a variety of sources. The results indicated that this internship was an effective model for instilling a sense of place, commitment to conservation, and increased sense of self-efficacy among its participants. Hands-on field research of this type has potential to increase sense of place, commitment to conservation, and a sense of self-efficacy, thereby augmenting a student's engagement in science, and improving performance in advanced science courses.</p>

No description available.

<p> This paper argues the importance of communicating messages to a general public about the important issues of the environmental state of the Earth, and it proposes that solutions need to be offered to help each individual act ecologically responsibly when using Earth&rsquo;s natural resources. Further, this paper suggests that choosing an effective medium to engage in communication with a general public is crucial.</p><p> To this end, I asked two questions that formed the basis of my research: 1. What research or personal experiences suggest that there is an urgent need to communicate messages to a general public about the environmental state of the Earth? 2. Assuming the Earth is in a dire state and its environmental well-being is in jeopardy, through which medium of communication might one achieve the most widespread and significant impact in an effort to spread environmental messages?</p><p> I realized that the best way for the general public to become informed and guided is via short, dramatized films that take one environmental subject at a time, bring attention to an issue, and suggest a solution that each individual can exercise. A short film on fossil fuel use, specifically electricity, serves as the data section of my thesis, and I reflect on the making of that film in my conclusion.</p>

<p> In recent years a surge in research focused on the influences of water on humans. However, few have studied the effects of water on our relationship with nature, particularly to explore enduring impressions from a longitudinal perspective. Addressing these gaps, this qualitative exploratory research enlisted a case study methodology that employed multiple methods to investigate how a multi-day wilderness trip on the Tatshenshini River might affect participants&rsquo; connection to nature and position toward a sustainable lifestyle. The 12 participants were administered the Kellert Shorb Biophilic Indicator (KSBVI) questionnaire prior to the trip and reflected in journals during the experience. Six months after the trip ended a survey was administered. After 16 months, in-depth interviews were conducted. The results suggest that immersion into <i> river time</i>, an experience conceptualization that connected participants to nature&rsquo;s rhythm, generally equated with a <i>flow</i> state and a condition of <i>blue mind</i>, positively influenced their connection to nature. It appears that living water in concert with awe-inspiring encounters in the natural world enhanced and affirmed participants&rsquo; position toward a sustainable lifestyle. Furthermore, this multi-day wilderness experience seemed to inform their orientation toward sustainability. The findings suggest that further research into the lasting effects of river time and awe within these types of contexts is warranted.</p><p>

<p> Environmental education programs aim to develop participant awareness, sensitivity, and understanding of their affective relationship to the natural environment through conceptual knowledge and personal experiences. Previous findings have suggested that participation in environmental education programs leads to short-term positive increases in environmental knowledge, pro-environmental attitudes, and intentions to act in environmentally responsible behaviors; however, few studies have included long-term, follow-up assessment. This research provided an analysis of the effectiveness of the O'Neill Sea Odyssey (OSO) education program in fostering a long-term awareness of personal responsibility about ocean pollution among student participants.</p><p> A survey administered to 261 students from the greater San Francisco Bay Area in California was used to explore 7^th through 10^th grade students' conceptions about the connection between ocean pollution and stewardship behaviors. The study revealed that 75% of 86 former OSO participants retained a high level of awareness of the connection between non-point source pollution and personal behaviors two to five years after the program, regardless of differences in sex, language, grade level, and community setting. These results indicate that OSO participants retained a long-term conceptual awareness about environmental stewardship behaviors taught during the OSO program.</p>

<p> The primary and immediate objective of this educational intervention study is to raise consumer awareness of the impact of under-inflated tires on global warming. The short-term result of this would be the widespread maintenance of proper tire air pressure, the use of low-rolling resistance tires, and the inflation of tires with nitrogen instead of air, which could assist in the reduction of fuel use and resultant CO₂ emissions. Such a reduction could have a significant short-term result of benefitting consumers economically and the world environmentally.</p><p> Utilizing a quasi-experimental design, a pamphlet and pre- and post-survey questionnaires were employed to collect data from a convenience sample of consumers (N=126). An educational pamphlet was prepared to increase consumer awareness about the importance of how properly inflated tires can be a factor in driver safety, fuel conservation, and the prevention of unnecessary increases in greenhouse gas emissions, which are among the major factors affecting global warming.</p><p> Data from the pre-intervention survey provides strong evidence that participants possess insufficient knowledge of general tire care, maintenance, performance and the impact of under-inflated tires on the environment in general and global warming in particular. Statistical analysis demonstrated significant change from pre- to postintervention surveys in the participants&rsquo; attitudes and knowledge regarding the maintenance of tire pressure and the impact of under-inflated tires on greenhouse gases and global warming.</p><p> The improvement in overall knowledge and attitudes demonstrated in the analysis between pre- and post-survey data indicates greater recognition by the participants that appropriate car care and tire maintenance are essential, and that for consumers, the acquisition and application of this knowledge can be powerful in improving the economy and environment. Suggestions for further study include development of consistent monitoring and data collection processes for use by facilities responsible for automobile care and the development of a broad-based, media-driven consumer education programs on the importance of the studied variables.</p>

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 64-67).

This ethnographic case study of eight environmental teacher educators who collaborated in a four-state watershed education partnership was focused on processes of social constructions of region and regional partnership. Participant observation in meetings, interviews, and spatial representations were used as data for the eleven-month study. Spatial representations at two intervals were analyzed for documentation of conceptual change. A metaphorical model was used as the interpretive frame for analysis of interview and partnership meeting discourse features. Participants identified central features of place, diversity, and scale as they elaborated upon their sub-watershed valley regions as "home." Participants identified experiential learning as the foundation for watershed education, and reported that grounded experience was their own most essential way of knowing the watershed. The participants valued collaboration, networking, learning about one another's work, and the opportunity to make professional connections as benefits of partnership. In an examination of discourses of "self" and "the environment," analysis of partnership discourse strategies yielded evidence of prosodic phenomena such as raising questions and laughter as means of maintaining synchrony and coherence in meetings. Over the study period, the participants' spatial representations demonstrated tensions between political and bioregional boundaries and growing similarity across representations of the partnership. Issues of support for multistate regional partnerships were considered. Conclusions were that cultural and folk concepts of region are useful in determining scale to inform watershed education policy initiatives and implementation. In partnership meetings, democratic practices were considered most practical for "getting something done." Implications for education included expanding applications of metacognitive approaches, a focus on experiential learning in watershed education, and the place of "place" as an interdisciplinary educational focus. Finding a cultural taboo on conflict, the researcher recommends further development of curriculum environmental conflict resolution, and calls for intergenerational community watershed councils trained in conflict resolution and mediation as foci for regional watershed education efforts.

<p>To better understand the value of those who engage in environmental stewardship of natural areas, we studied volunteer steward's motivation to participate, their sustainable behaviors and attitudes toward stewardship-related constructs. Specifically, we designed and conducted a survey of volunteers who work as stewards in urban natural areas in Portland, Oregon. We hypothesize that as volunteer frequency increases: participants will be more motivated to participate for environmental reasons, volunteers will be more likely to feel a strong connection to the stewardship site, participants will be more likely to engage in public pro-environmental behaviors, and their level of environmental literacy will increase. Participants were sampled using a face-to-face survey methodology over the course of late winter and spring of 2012 during 18 different Portland Parks and Recreation sponsored stewardship events. We examined the motivations, attitudes and behaviors of the volunteers, and devised appropriate management implications for those organizing volunteer efforts. We equated a three-tiered typology of environmental literacy, based upon the frequency of volunteer participation, and analyzed our survey data using a principal component analysis, generalized linear models, and a qualitative coding analysis. The most frequent participants showed a higher likelihood of participation in public environmental behaviors, whereas participants at all frequency levels were also likely to participate in private environmental behaviors, such as removing invasive plants in one's yard. Volunteers across all frequencies of participation were motivated to engage in stewardship events by a desire to help the environment. By understanding volunteers' motivations and linked behaviors, park managers may gain insights about the recruitment, retention, and messaging of volunteers upon whom they may depend to achieve restoration goals. We recommend considering volunteers' motivations and benefits derived from participation in messaging to recruit and retain volunteers. Additionally, park managers should take advantage of educational opportunities linked to stewardship events, such as training programs and chances for volunteer mentorship.</p>

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, June, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.