Influence of Field Trips on Adolescent Environmental Stewardship
Presentation Type
Poster
Faculty Advisor
Neeraj Vedwan
Access Type
Event
Start Date
26-4-2024 11:15 AM
End Date
26-4-2024 12:15 PM
Description
Promoting environmental stewardship among youths is crucial for inspiring collaborative, multi-generational actions to tackle long-term environmental challenges. This research study explores the impact of an environmental education (EE) field trip, which highlighted wastewater management and renewable energy technology, on high school students using the revised new ecological paradigm (NEP) scale as a key metric in a pre-post survey, which uses traditionally pro (NEP) and anti (dominant social paradigm, DSP) conservationist statements to measure beliefs towards the environment. As anticipated, the survey findings demonstrated a heightened level of agreement in DSP statements following the EE field trip, whereas NEP statements exhibited a notable increase in disagreement. This finding contrasts with conventional environmental belief studies. However, results also showed an increased value placed on specific environmental management actions (i.e., proper wastewater management) following the field trip. This suggests that exposure to environmental management intervention strategies using manmade infrastructure and technology may emphasize human capability to positively influence the environment and mitigate environmental threats, potentially alleviating concerns about environmental issues. These results suggest that environmental stewardship in youth needs to be reconceptualized since it is being reshaped by an increasingly STEM-focused world and that a new metric should be developed in order to assess environmental beliefs.
Influence of Field Trips on Adolescent Environmental Stewardship
Promoting environmental stewardship among youths is crucial for inspiring collaborative, multi-generational actions to tackle long-term environmental challenges. This research study explores the impact of an environmental education (EE) field trip, which highlighted wastewater management and renewable energy technology, on high school students using the revised new ecological paradigm (NEP) scale as a key metric in a pre-post survey, which uses traditionally pro (NEP) and anti (dominant social paradigm, DSP) conservationist statements to measure beliefs towards the environment. As anticipated, the survey findings demonstrated a heightened level of agreement in DSP statements following the EE field trip, whereas NEP statements exhibited a notable increase in disagreement. This finding contrasts with conventional environmental belief studies. However, results also showed an increased value placed on specific environmental management actions (i.e., proper wastewater management) following the field trip. This suggests that exposure to environmental management intervention strategies using manmade infrastructure and technology may emphasize human capability to positively influence the environment and mitigate environmental threats, potentially alleviating concerns about environmental issues. These results suggest that environmental stewardship in youth needs to be reconceptualized since it is being reshaped by an increasingly STEM-focused world and that a new metric should be developed in order to assess environmental beliefs.