What are the most effective ways to educate and engage youth in

environmental education, conservation, and sustainable action?

Alaina Wray

Senior Project Advisor: Dave Farkas

Abstract:

Our wild spaces and wildlife are being destroyed due to commodification and negligence.
As this threat grows it is evident that we need to educate people to increase engagement with
environmental education, conservation, and sustainability. This paper aims to discuss how we
can most effectively inspire and educate youth in environmental and wildlife conservation
education. This is to hopefully create engaged and sustainably minded individuals. Existing
research illustrates that student driven curriculum which has structure for collaboration as well as
developing empathy and sense of place towards nature and animals, creates opportunities for
increased engagement and learning. When this is done individuals are more likely to want to
engage in sustainable actions and environmental education. These conclusions show that we now
need to be implementing this pedagogy into school curriculum and environmental minded
outreach programs.

12th Grade Humanities

AnimasHigh School

4 April 2022
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Part I: Introduction

In the western United States we find the dramatic coastline of Big Sur California echoing

with the cry of seagulls, where waterfalls cascade off cliffs to the coarse sand below, and

elephant seals bask in the hot sun. East over the grand Sierra Mountains that rise above the

towering redwoods is the untamed sandstone landscape of Utah with miles of deep canyon mazes

and high plateaus, where rattlesnakes hide beneath the rocks and ring-tailed cats move skillfully

above. (National Parks Service) Continuing to the drastic landscape of the Rocky Mountains we

find snow runoff filling the cold alpine lakes where bighorn sheep canter around the rocky edges.

Lower down the mountain black bears forage in windy meadows dressed in wild flowers. Flying

as the crow south across brush deserts, pine forests, and miles of fields, rain pours on the marsh

landscape of Lousianna. Alligators cut through the muddy water while colorful ducks fly

overhead. In the forests of bald cypress and oak, javelina run while great horned owls swoop

overhead. North of this swamp is the cold salty shore of Maine. Waves crash over the rocks

where puffins hop, hunting for small fish. In the water red lobsters crawl below the surface and

farther out whales breach for air. Isn’t it beautiful?

The dynamic land of the United States holds the purest and wildest landscapes, but only a

portion is protected. In fact only 14% of the United States total land area is protected. (Atitwa et

al.) Furthermore, only 2.7% of this land in the lower 48 states is designated wilderness. (Tidwel)

This means only a small amount of our country's land is protected to remain in its natural state.

Unfortunately, these protected lands are also being destroyed by negligence by the people using

them. It is essential that we work to protect our wilderness from destruction by development and

negligence.

The reason why a lot of our land isn’t being protected or treated sustainably is because it

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is seen as a commodity and unsustainably developed. Over the last few decades 30% of all

tropical forests have been lost globally. Between 35% and 40% of the earth is agricultural land.

(Shepherd) These statistics mean that we are losing our natural Eden and developing most of it

for resource extraction. Since the 1800s our need for non renewable resources caused our carbon

emission to grow by 50%. In Alaska and South America we can see evidence of this in places

that were once glaciers and are now melted to the point where they are considered lakes. (Foley)

Earth is being harmed because of our growing need for its resources. Our consumerist need for

these resources has led to the continual treatment of Earth as though it is only a commodity. This

has led to harmful development and people not recreating responsibly in protected areas. We

need to conserve and protect our wild spaces and wildlife from this continual decimation. To

achieve this it is necessary for people to change their behavior to be aimed at protecting our

wildlife and wildspaces. How do we do this?

There is a popular motto in conservation that says “we will only save what we love and

love what we care about.” To motivate people to protect our land and its creatures we must get

them to love them. As Steve Irwin said, "If we can get people excited about animals, then by

crikey, it makes it a heck of a lot easier to save them." Research shows that appropriate education

fosters sustainable behavior, improves support for conservation, reduces poaching, and

influences policies surrounding the environment. (Franquesa-Soler 28) This indicates that

educating youth about nature and animals causes them to work to protect our wildlife and

environment. If we want to make a change for our world we must have engaging education

surrounding these topics. TEducation that uses holistic and innovative pedagogy is the most

effective way to inspire and engage youth in environmental education, conservation and

sustainable action.

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Part II: Historical Context and Background

A Brief History of Our Relationship with Earth

The view of our natural world as abstract space during colonization has led to the

commodification of our land. In the past as countries grew they saw nature as: “unimproved,

wild land, or uncultured... (nature) was perceived as a separate domain in need of cultivation.”

(Mrozowski, 154) Nature wasn’t seen as valuable as it was but only as what they could do with

it: farming, building, grazing, etc. This is the lens of abstract space. Abstract space is the view of

Earth as only areas on a map to be measured and traded. Maps “allowed the underwriters of

colonial conquest to measure their progress and calculate their gain.” (Mrozowski, 154) This led

to Earth only being seen as, “a resource to be owned, manipulated, extracted and exploited for

human consumption and capital gain” (McRuer, Margarita, 853) This is commodification, the

land only being valued for its ability to be sold and used. This continual view discussed above

has led to “tragedy of the commons”, where people ignore the greater good of the world or others

for their own personal gain. This view of the world and poor treatment of it continues today.

As our society grows so does our commodification and use of Earth's resources.

According to Jonathan Foley, executive director of Project Drawdown, a “nonprofit organization

that seeks to help the world reach “drawdown”—the future point in time when levels of

greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline.”(Foley), in the

last 50 years our global population has doubled. (Foley) This has led our economy to grow

around six fold. This means two times as many people are doing twice the amount of things.

(Foley) We now use “three times more food, twice as much water and three times more fossil

fuels than we did back in the 1970s.” (Foley) Simply put, as our population grows, so does our

unsustainable extraction of Earth's resources for our comfort and needs. This is also because our

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relationship with Earth is one of taking- the tragedy of our commons. It is critical that we address

this unsustainable use of resources and change our relationship with earth.

A Brief History of Our Relationship with Wildlife

Colonization led to the eradication of predators in the US. One example is the eradication

of wolves. PBS says in their article “Wolf Wars: America’s Campaign to Eradicate the Wolf” that

wolves were eradicated in the US during early colonization because of fear. Wolves and humans

both feared each other, this caused them to naturally avoid each other. However, as colonists

began to take many acres of land for livestock, towns, and farming, as well as the hunting of

many prey animals, confrontations began to occur. PBS says, “Their pastures abutted and bled

into the wild, exposing the animals to hungry wolves in search of prey… Suddenly, colonists

found their livelihoods in danger, and they lashed out at wolves, both with physical violence and

folklore that ensured wolf hatred would be passed down from one generation to the next.”

Eradication of the wolves started with farmers baiting and trapping wolves. Then government

campaigns that used fear based propaganda caused the complete eradication of wolves and

cougars by the early 1900s. (Wolf) (NPS) This fear continues today, leading to the

misunderstanding and mismanagement of these predators.

A Brief History of Environmental Education

For the purpose of this paper environmental education is defined as United States

Environmental Protection Agency defines it:

Environmental education is a process that allows individuals to explore environmental

issues, engage in problem solving, and take action to improve the environment. As a

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result, individuals develop a deeper understanding of environmental issues and have the

skills to make informed and responsible decisions….Environmental education does not

advocate a particular viewpoint or course of action. Rather, environmental education

teaches individuals how to weigh various sides of an issue through critical thinking and it

enhances their own problem-solving and decision-making skills. (EPA)

Carter and Simmons, authors of “The History and Philosophy of Environmental

Education” argue that the root of environmental education (EE) is rooted in the great writings of

Emerson’s Nature (1836), Thoreau’s Walden (1854), and George Perkins Marsh’s Man and

Nature (1864) (4) These writings, according to them, developed the discussion on the

relationship between humans and nature, during a time in which many people viewed the USA as

still seemingly limitless. (Carter and Simmons, 4) This view of the US was rooted in the view of

our land as abstract space as discussed in a previous section. While this writing caused

movements around environmental education (EE) the first true action in the promotion of EE

didn’t take place until 1970.

The first major law around environmental education was enacted in October 1970. This

was the Environmental Education Act, and it was implemented in the “US Office of Education in

the former Department of Health, Education, and Welfare” (Carter and Simmons, 7)

Unfortunately this law was only enacted for five years. However, through the efforts of many

non profits and other social movements EE began to gain a foundation in the US.

Eight years later, after the Environment Education Act expired these goals were created

and are the cornerstone of EE globally today:

(a) to foster clear awareness of, and concern about, economic, social, political and

ecological interdependence in urban and rural areas;

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(b) to provide every person with opportunities to acquire the knowledge, values, attitudes,

commitment and skills needed to protect and improve the environment;

(c) to create new patterns of behavior of individuals, groups and society as a whole

towards the environment (UNESCO 1978, p. 26)

This was a big step but EE was unfortunately still not very popular in the USA. (Carter and

Simmons, 8-9)

In the US, overall, our government showed little interest in “environmental quality and

literacy”(Kline 2007) but did show interest in “the development of a decidedly anti

environmental movement dubbed variously as brown-lash, the sagebrush rebellion, or the wise

use movement” (Kline 2007). These movements pushed by the government caused businesses

and industries to stop any environmental improvements in their methods. (Carter and Simmons,

9) This means that the progress achieved from the Environmental Education Act was quickly lost

from these movements. This loss in progress was compacted by the No Child Left Behind Act in

2001 that practically ignored EE and assisted in the termination of the National Environmental

Education Act’s reinstatement. (Carter and Simmons, 10)

However, not all hope was lost. In 2005 Richard Louv published Last Child in the

Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder. This publication discusses the

“causes and consequences of a number of modern society’s ills” (Carter and Simmons, 10) and

how it relates to the lack of engagement with our natural world. Last Child in the Woods

rekindled the discussion around EE and our environment, causing it to grace the headlines of

Americans discussions once again. (Carter and Simmons, 10) As this discussion and publication

grew in popularity the No Child Left Inside movement started. It resulted in a bill that was taken

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to congress and passed. This caused the Environmental Education Act to be reinstated now

renamed the No Child Left Inside Act. (Carter and Simmons, 10) With as much progress as we

have made with EE it is not enough. With our world growing and our need for its resources with

it, we need to have effective EE that leads to engagement with conservation and sustainability

from us as a people.

Part III: Research and Analysis

Importance of Motivators for Conservation Action

To get youth to engage with environmental education and sustainable and conservation

action we need to know what motivates them to do so. In “THE CASE FOR EMPATHY:

FOSTERING EMPATHY AS ONE AVENUE TOWARDS ENCOURAGING CONSERVATION

BEHAVIOR.” It says that “-encouraging people to engage in action on behalf of animals and

nature, a number of different motivations – both internal and external - come into play.” This

means that to get people to take part in conservation and sustainable actions there needs to be a

convincing incentive. This is important because one of the goals of EE is causing behavioral

changes towards the environment. Motivating- and getting people involved in sustainable and

conservation actions does this. For EE and wildlife conservation education this means looking at

these motivators, external and internal, and implementing them into EE and wildlife conservation

education curriculum. Emotional connections are one example of an internal motivator.

In order to get youth to take part in conserving our animals and environment we need to

foster emotional connections. Woodland Park Zoo discussed in “Advancing Conservation

Through Empathy for Wildlife.” that behavioral change and action must have social and

emotional roots to be carried out, saying “If we're really trying to create the social movement for

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conservation it's essential that we understand how those emotions drive, and how we foster those

emotions.” Meaning that to get people to take action for conservation we need to understand how

emotional connection motivates conservation aimed action and foster that emotion. Seattle

Aquarium agrees saying that, “Successfully inciting conservation action depends on addressing

barriers, incentives, and internal motivators.” (2) This means that to get people to take action for

conservation we need to understand what motivates that, how to foster that, and what could stop

that action. To successfully motivate youth to take part in conservation and sustainable action we

must foster emotional connections and structure this into EE curriculum.

The Need for Environmental Education Innovation and Why Current Education isn’t Enough

The school system is critical in developing youths' views on our natural world, so we

need to educate youth to care about the environment. Franquesa-Soler et al. in their article

“Children's Learning Preferences for the Development of Conservation Education Programs in

Mexican Communities.” said that, “- (the) school system plays an important role in orienting the

individual towards the respect for nature and all forms of life.”(28) With youth spending 13 of

their young years in school this is undoubtedly true. This means that during the most critical

years of development, where youths' perceptions, and feelings towards nature are shaped,

happen in school. This is why it is critical that what they are being taught about the environment

is setting them up to respect and care for it.

Environmental education (EE) should be taught in a way that equips youth with the skills

to engage in the stewardship of our natural world. Franquesa-Soler et al. discuss in their article

“Children's Learning Preferences for the Development of Conservation Education Programs in

Mexican Communities” the importance of education's goal being to raise a generation that can

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“-think independently and solve problems creatively” (Klimova 505) This ties in perfectly with

the environmental education goals set up in the beginning of EE:

(a) to foster clear awareness of, and concern about, economic, social, political and

ecological interdependence in urban and rural areas;

(b) to provide every person with opportunities to acquire the knowledge, values, attitudes,

commitment and skills needed to protect and improve the environment;

(c) to create new patterns of behavior of individuals, groups and society as a whole

towards the environment (UNESCO 1978, p. 26)

This essentially says that environmental education should teach about environmental issues from

all different perspectives, as well as teach about the environment and the skills to protect it and

solve its critical issues. Finally, it says that EE should aim to change the behaviors of the world

to more sustainable ones. This is why it is important that EE provides opportunities for youth to

actively engage with stewarding our environment and solving critical issues within it. This is so

that they can build up the skills in problem solving that are necessary to solving and engaging

with the conservation of our natural world.

Often in traditional learning, EE is taught in a passive way that doesn't allow students to

truly learn the skills and topics discussed above. There tends to be a practice for teachers and

policy makers to retreat back to single disciplines that fail to recognize the holistic nature of EE

and the skills it allows youth to build, cheating their learning. (Franquesa-Soler et al. 30) This

means that traditionally EE is taught from one perspective and doesn’t recognize the

interdisciplinary complexities of environmental issues. This way of teaching is passive because it

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doesn’t address or respond to all sides of current environmental issues. For example let’s take a

look at the recent rise in turtle poaching in Costa Rica and Panama.

In an article titled “The Turtle Poachers Say They Have No Choice” Alexander Villegas

discusses how since COVID many locals from Panama and Costa Rica are poaching more turtles

than in the previous years. This is stated in the article to be because of the drop in their

economies relating to COVID, as both countries' economies that relied on tourism were shut

down during COVID. This caused a lot of them to resort back to turtle poaching to survive, for

food and income. In light of this a local fisherman and turtle hunter in Panama said, “All my

friends who worked in tourism, everyone I knew, went out to sea to go fish,” (Villegas) With the

return of tourism the turtle poaching didn’t stop. These local people do not want to stop hunting

turtles because like hunting to many US citizens, turtle poaching- or turtle hunting- is a deeply

rooted part of their culture. The turtle hunter in Panama said, “Why do you think God put all

these turtles out in the ocean? They said that turtles would go extinct, but we ate way more back

then. The sea is still filled with turtles, but it’s all the great turtle hunters who’ve disappeared.”

(A. Villegas) Many Ticos and Panaminians want to know why hunting turtles is bad when they

don’t see a consequence. They also want to know where their local tradition has gone. Due to

COVID many of these local peoples don’t have a choice, but even without COVID should they

have a choice? How do we balance the cultural and economic needs of the locals and the health

of turtles and the ocean ecosystem?

This topic of turtle poaching is complex. If only looked at it from one angle one might

say “poaching is bad so those poaching turtles are bad.” However, this issue and many others are

more complex than that. All environmental issues are more complex than just one discipline can

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accommodate for. This is why it is critical that in EE we holistically look at these issues and give

youth the tools to do the same.

Teaching EE only from textbooks does not allow for effective and engaging education.

Huang-Yao et al. who conducted a study on pedagogy surrounding energy education in their

paper, “Elementary Students Enhancing Their Understanding of Energy-Saving through

Idea-Centered Collaborative Knowledge-Building Scaffolds and Activities” would agree,

discussing in their paper that when students are only taught from the textbook their learning is

limited and they don’t get to learn through inquiry and working creatively with ideas. (79) They

say that “-education should not merely focus on passive reception of basic concepts from

textbooks, but should promote active and interactive discussion of actionable ideas that would

lead to in-depth understanding for solving real-world problems.”(64) This is saying that when EE

is taught on real world topics instead of from a textbook it causes deeper learning and

understanding of our world. This leads to the building of skills and sustainable action for solving

these issues. This also causes motivation to do these actions and engage deeper. This is why it is

important that when teachers and policy makers are deciding how to teach EE they don’t resort

back to one discipline or text book. (Franquesa-Soler et al. 30) Allowing EE to focus on real

critical environmental issues from all perspectives would allow for students to be inquisitive and

be creative with their solutions.

In order to move away from traditional textbook learning and offer opportunities in EE

for deeper learning and skill building we must structure the curriculum well. We must structure it

to provide these opportunities. Nixon et al. in their article, “Increasing Student Engagement

through Curriculum Redesign: Deconstructing the ‘Apprentice’ Style of Delivery” said:

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Curriculum design is crucial to maximizing the student learning experience and is often

overlooked and underutilized. The way that learning is delivered, supported, and assessed

can enhance enjoyability attributes as the individual becomes more aware of their skills

and abilities. (26)

This means that when we are intentional with EE curriculum design students are able to fully

engage and grow their skill and ability set. Emily Porter and Melissa J. B. Rogers who both work

at Smithsonian in education would agree. In their article “Using Empathy for Animals to Engage

Young Children in Early Engineering Education” they said, “When educators scaffold

opportunities thoughtfully, children can engage with complex topics, tackle more challenging

tasks, and make more sophisticated connections than many people assume.” The more

opportunities for complex thinking the more youth will engage and solutionize. If we want

students to develop their skills and relationship with the environment, we need to be thoughtful

with curriculum design in EE.

To create an effective EE we need to know how students learn best and implement those

strategies into EE curriculum. Franquesa-Soler et al. in their article “Children's Learning

Preferences for the Development of Conservation Education Programs in Mexican

Communities.” say:

Studying how children learn can provide valuable information for the development of

effective conservation education programs, establishing a dialogue about learners’

strengths and weaknesses, enhancing their participation, and empowering them to take

action. (28)

This means that knowing how students learn and implementing that into EE curriculum will lead

to youth increasing their participation and their sustainable actions. Hong et al. agrees saying

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“Effective energy education depends on continuing research designed to identify instructional

strategies that will prove effective in particular learning contexts.” (63) It is critical that how

students learn is implemented into EE curriculum because if youth are taught in a way in which

they best engage with, we would see better outcomes in our societies attitude towards the

environment, with more engagement with solving critical environmental issues and taking

sustainable action. (Franquesa-Soler et al. 28) As discussed earlier, a curriculum that allows

youth to explore real world environmental topics is one example that does this.This is why it is

critical that the strategies that cause deeper learning and skills development is implemented into

EE curriculum.

Holistic and Innovative Pedagogy

Student driven learning causes increased engagement and learning from youth. Nixon et

al. who did a study on “Increasing Student Engagement through Curriculum Redesign” had their

educators decide the content but “on the whole it was left to the students to explore, research and

decide on their solutions.” (27) They later say that in relation to that “- (student driven learning)

has been found to be highly motivating for students, as they can see a sense of purpose to what

they're doing.” (28) When students are driving their learning they see greater purpose and this

causes more motivation and engagement with their learning. This also allows for students to

become more confident in themselves and their abilities. The increased engagement makes it

essential that student driven learning is scaffolded into EE curriculum.

Teaching about real world issues instead of from a textbook supports student driven

learning. Huang-Yao, and Pei-Yi Lin say, in their article “Elementary Students Enhancing Their

Understanding of Energy-Saving through Idea-Centered Collaborative Knowledge-Building

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Scaffolds and Activities”, that “allowing students to freely explore and inquire- as contrast with

passively acquiring knowledge from textbooks, can greatly help motivate students to become

self-directed learners.” (80) This means that going outside of the textbook for learning causes the

student to have to direct their own learning and therefore drive it. This leads to deeper learning

and engagement. This is important to EE because it allows them to truly learn the content and

build the critical skills discussed earlier.

Collaboration is important for effective E environmental education. Hong et al. in their

paper “Elementary Students Enhancing Their Understanding of Energy-Saving through

Idea-Centered Collaborative Knowledge-Building Scaffolds and Activities” said,

“-well-designed collaborative learning activities will help students develop the necessary

knowledge, skills and attitudes to learn about the science relevant to energy and environmental

issues.” (64) This means that when students collaborate in EE it leads to deeper learning and

engagement. They go on to say that “The collaboration process requires students to deepen their

interpersonal relationships and develop their social skills in order to make group learning more

effective.”(64) Collaboration causes students to learn to work together while simultaneously

driving their own learning. This leads to deeper discussions, more ideas, and further engagement.

It also causes better relationships and the development of soft skills. This is important to

integrate into EE because education that has deeper learning and engagement leads to more

participation in sustainable and conservation actions. It develops the necessary skills for youth to

tackle real world environmental problems. This is why collaboration is important to integrate

into EE curriculum.

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For the purposes of this paper empathy is defined as Seattle Aquarium defines it: “a

stimulated emotional state that relies on the ability to perceive, understand, and care about the

experiences or perspectives of another person or animal.” (4)

It is important that EE and wildlife education fosters empathy. Porter and Rogers from

the Smithonian in their article about engaging students with engineering through empathy

discuss how animals provide great opportunities for children to immediately connect to the

animals and have empathy for them. (Porter, Rogers) If youth are connecting with animals in this

way they start asking questions like “Why do you think the crab did that?” or “What do you

think this elephant needs to feel safe?” (Seattle Aquarium 3) Woodland Park Zoo agrees by

saying “(they) hopefully ask the question “what can I do to help wildlife and wild places?”” If

we foster empathy with animals we can really build a massive movement for conservation.

(Woodland Park Zoo) It is because of the reaction that empathy causes that makes it important to

be structured into environmental and wildlife education.

Empathy is crucial in motivating conservation and sustainable action. Woodland Park

Zoo in their paper “EMPATHY BEST PRACTICES” state that “Conservation psychology

research tells us that when it comes to taking conservation or caring action, people need more

than knowledge of what to do and why to do it. They also need a personal, emotional connection,

and that’s where empathy comes in.” In order to get people to engage in conservation and

sustainable action they need more than the basic information, they need to feel connected to it.

For example they need more than what light pollution is, they need to connect to the baby turtles

who follow city lights instead of the moon to the ocean. If people have an empathetic connection

to issues like this then we would see more conservation and sustainable action. Since empathy is

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so powerful and important when it comes to influencing conservation and sustainable action it is

crucial that it is implemented into EE curriculum.

Sense of Place is important to effective EE and conservation education. Sense of place is

the attachment an individual has to a particular space. Sense of place is often the connection to

the area around where an individual lives. For example if someone knows that the Amazon

Forest is being logged they may be moved and they might act. However, if an oil rig is going to

be installed where they live, work, and recreate this person is more likely to have a deep

emotional reaction and take action. This response is because of their place relationship- sense of

place. Sense of place acts as a motivator to incite conservation and sustainable action. McRuer

and Margarita in their article “The Difference Biocultural ‘Place’ Makes to Community Efforts

towards Sustainable Development: Youth Participatory Action Research in a Marine Protected

Area of Colombia.” state when sense of place is in EE it “- empower(s) youth in both learning

and action towards sustainability.” (849) Due to the deep connection to our land and action

towards protecting it that sense of place incites, it is essential to implement into EE curriculum.

Sense of place in environmental education leads to sustainable actions. McRuer and

Margarita in their article “The Difference Biocultural ‘Place’ Makes to Community Efforts

towards Sustainable Development: Youth Participatory Action Research in a Marine Protected

Area of Colombia.” say that “Attending to place in methodological processes acknowledges how

our relationship with the world around us result in a plurality of “worldviews”- or diverse beliefs

and ways of knowing that inform our actions.”(850) This means that the more we encompass

sense of place in education, they more that youth start to see the world around them and their

relationship with it. When this happens youth can start to become conscious of their habits and

actions and make the decision to change them. This is important because it leads to more

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sustainable actions and engagement in conserving our world. This makes it critical that we

implement it into EE.

Sense of place plays a role in student driven learning. This is because “-research inquiry

may influence youth place relationships, and how their place relationships may likewise

influence research inquiry.”(McRuer and Margarita 850) This means that when youth look at the

ecosystem where they live they become more connected to it and their sense of place develops.

Likewise when youth have a strong sense of place it motivates them to dig deeper in their

knowledge of where they live and what is harming it. Having sense of place structured into EE

allows for youth to grow their connection to the natural world in their area, as well as motivating

them to drive their own learning. This also develops critical skills by also encouraging youth to

identify local environmental threats and problems.(Franquesa-Soler et al. 30) This is another

reason that sense of place is a critical part of EE curriumlum.

Sense of place is furthered by collaboration. In Franquesa-Soler et al. article, “Children's

Learning Preferences for the Development of Conservation Education Programs in Mexican

Communities” says “Encouraging students to make connections to a real-life situation and

identify local environmental problems of their community can be better achieved through

inclusive teaching methodologies as the students learn by doing, observing, and sharing.” (30)

When students work together when learning, creating solutions, and taking action it causes them

to create a deeper sense of place. In turn this furthers their knowledge of what the threats are to

their local outside environment. This compacted result is why it is important that collaboration

and sense of place are implemented into EE.

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Part IV: Conclusion

Our world is beautiful but we are destroying it. We are destroying earth with our

consumerist tendencies rooted in our history of colonization. Our continual view of our land as

abstract space only valued on how we can profit from it is ruining it. Our fear and mistreatment

of our wildlife is eradicating them. It is critical for the protection and conservation of our world

that we change our relationship with earth and its animals. To do this we must engage with

environmental education, conservation, and sustainable actions. The real question is what are the

most effective ways to educate and engage youth in environmental education and engage in

conservation and sustainable action?

In my research I found that in order to create effective EE we need to know how students

learn best and what causes them to engage. This looks like using thoughtful education that uses

holistic and innovative pedagogy is the most effective way to inspire and engage youth in

environmental education, conservation, and sustainable action.

One of these education methods is innovating traditional learning by moving outside the

textbook and having students collaborate and drive their learning. This allows students to learn

holistically, developing both soft skills and hard skills, while also engaging in deeper learning.

As a result students will also be more motivated from learning EE in this way to take sustainable

and conservation aimed action and be prepared to do so.

EE also requires empathy and sense of place structured into its curriculum. Empathy and

sense of place allow for a holistic approach to EE. This is because these methods allow youth to

connect on a deeper level to animals and our land, causing them to ask questions like, “Why do

lemurs stay in the trees?”, “What am I doing to better or worsen this issue?” and “What can I do

to help?” These connections to animals and the natural world cause their motivation to engage

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with education surrounding these topics to increase as well as their incentive to engage in

conservation action and sustainability. Sense of place and empathy directs them to see the

animals, our land, and themselves in a more holistic way that traditional learning doesn’t allow

for. This new view causes them to engage in EE as well as conservation action and sustainability.

The goals of environmental education are:

(a) to foster clear awareness of, and concern about, economic, social, political and

ecological interdependence in urban and rural areas;

(b) to provide every person with opportunities to acquire the knowledge, values,

attitudes, commitment and skills needed to protect and improve the environment;

(c) to create new patterns of behavior of individuals, groups and society as a

whole towards the environment (UNESCO 26)

Structuring empathy and sense of place into EE achieves point (a). Empathy and sense of place

foster holistic concern for all perspectives of the “interdependence in urban and rural areas”.

Student driven curriculum with collaboration does (b). These teaching methods provide deep

learning opportunities that build the skills necessary to “protect and improve the environment”.

All of these teaching methods achieve (c) by motivating and causing youth to engage in

conservation and sustainable action that in turn creates new and better patterns of behavior

towards the environment and our wildlife. Due to how well these innovative and holistic

pedagogical approaches achieve the goals of EE it is important that they are implemented into

environmental education.

Youth spend most of their time developing and creating their perceptions of the world in

school. It is because of this that it is critical that these innovative and holistic pedagogical

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approaches are integrated into our school systems’ curriculum as well as all environmental

minded outreach programs.

Our world is beautiful and it is important that we work to protect it. To do this we need

thoughtful education that uses holistic and innovative pedagogy so that we can be effective at

inspiring and engaging youth in environmental education, conservation and sustainable action.

Work Cited

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https://www.zoo.org/document.doc?id=2560

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