Sustainability is a growing concept amongst education and throughout everyday life. This thesis takes a deeper look into what environmental sustainability indicates in terms of curriculum in co-curricular programming at the University of the Pacific and how that relates to current trends at other institutions in the tertiary sector. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the extent to which the Pacific Mountains, Ocean, Valley Experience (M.O.V.E.) impacted first-year students' awareness and understanding of sustainability. The students surveyed show strong evidence finding that first-year students who participated in M.O.V.E. (1) felt their experience provided them with new knowledge about sustainability and (2) felt comfortable defining what sustainability means to them. Definitions of economic, social, and environmental sustainability are given and provide evidence for overlapping relationships. A brief history regarding sustainability in relation to its evolution throughout higher education is reviewed. Many colleges and universities have become conscious to the ideas surrounding environmental sustainability and have made many strides on their campuses to address this issue. Sustainability education is defined and issues surrounding its new development in higher education are addressed. There are various avenues colleges and universities take in order to fulfill environmentally sustainable practices, such as building LEED certified structures o·n campus, developing programs and curriculum to educate for eco-justice, and aligning mission statements to reflect the campus's commitment to sustainable practices. A further look into what criteria are being used to rate colleges and universities regarding their commitment to sustainable practices is assessed. This paper concludes with areas needed for further research on sustainability education with respect to methods of implementation and practice in higher education.

The purpose of this dissertation is to make sense of two sets of reactions. On the one hand, Americans can barely lift a finger to help threatened and endangered species while on the other, they routinely come to the aid of human victims of disaster. I argue that in contrast to cases of human tragedy, for the biodiversity crisis conservationists are faced not only with the familiar yet arduous task of motivating the American public to care for living other-than-humans, but they are also saddled with having to overcome the motivation problem of future ethics. The motivation problem consists in eliminating or bridging a motivational gap that lies between knowledge of the effects of our actions on future generations and action taken based upon such knowledge. The gap exists because motives that typically move people to action are either ineffective or unavailable. What is more, the gap influences not only our ability to care for future humans, but it affects our ability to care for future other-than-humans as well. Biodiversity loss is in fact a subset of the problem of future generations, an identification hitherto little appreciated. I argue that conservationists can overcome the motivational gap not by appealing directly to the value of species or biodiversity, both of which are temporally distant, abstract and general moral patients, but indirectly, by focusing on the concrete and particular lives of extant and near future moral patients. By applying techniques that have been developed to overcome the motivation problem as it pertains to distant future human generations, conservationists have additional resources to draw upon in their efforts to motivate American citizens to preserve biodiversity. This dissertation’s contribution to the fields of environmental philosophy and conservation biology is both theoretical and practical. It is theoretically significant to elucidate the nature of moral failure for biodiversity conservation. In terms of broader impacts, identifying the basis of moral failure for biodiversity conservation allows me to assess educational campaigns and environmental policy, and to suggest solutions for bridging the motivational gap.

Zoos engage individuals with species and education opportunities that they may have never meet on their own; specifically, education regarding visitor’s sustainability habits. This thesis investigates the extent to which adult participants believe their sustainability behaviors, such as recycling and water usage habits, have been impacted by their childhood zoo visitation rates, and discusses the long-term impact zoos have on what has been termed “socially acceptable sustainability behavior.” A survey of 136 Southern Illinois University Carbondale students of various majors found that a majority individual does not remember learning sustainability behaviors while visiting zoos; however, participants believe that visiting zoos has impacted their overall level of environmental concern, primarily regarding animal welfare and species conservation. The initial analysis of the findings suggest that zoos need to develop new ways of engaging visitors regarding sustainability behavior and provide post-visit experiences that reinforce and extend sustainability messages and action. Further research and analysis are required to verify these claims.

Natural Resources Management is a combination of disciplines all working together to improve management practices, environmental education, and cross-discipline communication. Land managers and conservationist have become a group of people thrust into the public eye and to help the world make sense of the ecological and climatic changes that are taking place. For this reason, Natural Resources Management PhD?s have become a community needed to interface with the public in order to balance environmental and societal needs. This dissertation project took a renaissance approach by examining a wide range of fields. It is said that a Renaissance man is knowledgeable and proficient in a wide range of fields or they are interdisciplinary. The world is in need of a conservation renaissance to reconnect the environment back to societal values, and it is going to need an interdisciplinary approach to do so. To do this each of the three areas: communication, education, and application were explored. Communication was addressed in two parts, first through the completion of a partnered publication with United States Fish and Wildlife Services, which used a framework from education (backward design) to communicate best practices for tallgrass prairie reconstruction in North Dakota. A second document was then completed describing how the backward design model was used to optimize communication. To further connect the importance of education to Natural Resource Management, I partnered with the Minnesota State University Moorhead Regional Science Center and their curriculum based field trips; drawing artifacts were collected and examined using the coding scheme from Human Figure Drawing and cross-racial facial recognition to determine what cues are utilized in novice plant observers. The Natural Resource Management application research was conducted on conservation lands in eastern North and South Dakota comparing the spike seeding method with more traditional seeding methods.

Stagnant science achievement by students, greater demands and stresses on natural resources and environmental systems, and societal disengagement from nature highlight the need for education programs to ameliorate subsequent consequences. One attempt to address science performance and environmental apathy is Youth Environmental Science (YES), an environmental education program initiated in 2011 in a rural, minority-dominated, upper elementary school in Mississippi. The program provides five consecutive days (30 hours) of experiential learning in natural sciences. During 2011-2013, I studied cognitive and affective responses of fourth and fifth grade students to YES participation using a pretest-posttest-delayed posttest design. The influence of demographic factors (race/ethnicity, gender, and economic status) on student responses was also examined. Compared to pretest scores, posttest knowledge and attitude scores were higher for YES participants, indicating the pedagogy was effective at promoting knowledge gains and positive environmental attitudes. Higher values were associated with female, non-Black, or higher income students; however, gains in both knowledge and attitude were similar across all demographic groupings, suggesting students from diverse backgrounds benefitted equally. Year-end proficiency exams indicated natural science knowledge gained by fourth and fifth grade students during their participation in YES did not decline with time, demonstrating retention and application of content knowledge. Moreover, although Black and low income fifth grade students had lower proficiency scores, these groups showed generally increasing trends in exam performance with elapsed time. This pattern suggests experiential and intensive environmental education interventions scheduled early in the academic year may be effective for sensitizing students for classroom learning that follows later in the year. This may be particularly impactful to those students who may experience fewer science enrichment and outdoor opportunities and thereby provide a mechanism for reducing achievement gaps among demographic groups.

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This thesis investigates culturally responsive teaching in the context of environmental education (EE) and is composed of an introduction (Chapter 1), one study intended for eventual publication (Chapter 2), and a personal reflection (Chapter 3). The introduction provides a brief overview of EE and explains why the topics of study included in this thesis are important to address. For Chapter 2, I conducted interviews to understand how environmental educators characterize culturally responsive EE, how they practice it, and what they identify are the key catalysts and challenges to providing culturally responsive EE. The results of this study indicate the importance of a multifaceted approach that incorporates EE content, educator practices, organizational practices, and a critically reflexive mindset. In Chapter 3, my personal reflection considers themes that were woven throughout the work, time, and thought spent on this project and as a master's student at Virginia Tech. This work is meant to provide ideas and guidance for EE practitioners as they seek out approaches for increasing relevance in EE programs, uplift equitable practices in the EE field, and progress along their journeys to awareness and action. / Master of Science / This study explores the framework for culturally responsive teaching in the context of environmental education (EE). Recognizing that the field has fallen short of providing relevant EE programming for students from communities who have been historically excluded from nature, practitioners seek education strategies that resonate with these groups. Terms such as culturally relevant and culturally responsive are touted as methods for reaching diverse learners on EE programs, but the field lacks clearly defined practices for implementing these approaches. This study examines culturally responsive teaching with the objective of identifying culturally responsive practices to increase the relevance and meaning of EE programs for the diversity of youth across the United States. We conducted interviews with EE educators and managers to answer main research questions: (1) How do EE practitioners characterize culturally responsive EE; (2) How do practitioners practice culturally responsive EE; and (3) What are key catalysts and challenges to being culturally responsive in EE? These questions seek to understand how EE practitioners achieve relevance and extend inclusion for more equitable EE programs. We explored ways that culturally responsive EE may be considered, integrated, and supported at the program content level, program delivery level, and the organizational level. This paper builds off of important work being done in EE research and by EE practitioners in the field to develop more inclusive programs and practices that reflect diverse experiences of learners.

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