Environmental Science Education Research Articles

Environmental integration in maritime education: A holistic approach

This research investigates the integration of environmental science education within maritime curricula at the Maritime Institute Jakarta. Focusing on 70 cadets across Nautical, Technical, and Port and Shipping Management majors, a qualitative descriptive approach is employed. Results reveal varying levels of environmental awareness, integration perception, and challenges. Nautical Major demonstrates high awareness and positivity but faces time constraints. Technical Major shows a mixed perception with resistance to change. Port and Shipping Management Major lags behind, identifying a lack of clear guidelines. The research aligns with theoretical frameworks, emphasising tailored approaches to curriculum development. Implications include curriculum adjustments, targeted interventions, and strategic communication. The results contribute to the goal of producing "eco-navigators" – maritime professionals adept at both technical proficiency and environmental consciousness. As the maritime industry navigates sustainability challenges, this research provides valuable insights for refining environmental science education, fostering a new generation of maritime professionals aligned with global sustainability imperatives.

New Geoeducational Facilities in Central Mazovia (Poland) Disseminate Knowledge about Local Geoheritage

Geoeducation is fundamental for safeguarding the abiotic world and its impact on the environment, which is inhabited by a society with ever-growing aspirations. However, current Earth and environmental science education in schools is insufficient. It requires creative and captivating methods that extend beyond traditional classroom settings, such as utilising new natural landscapes, in order to effectively implement geoeducation. New geological resources are unveiled during fieldwork or deep excavations. They can also be altered in situ through anthropogenic means to appear more visible to observers, particularly in remote tourism regions. As a geotourism product, these resources have the potential to serve as a catalyst for local economic growth. This article presents five geosites in central Mazovia, Poland, which were opened to the public in 2022 and 2023. Two Scandinavian erratic boulders, one of which has been developed, and three lapidaries with geotourism infrastructure are discussed. The research examines the significance of the erratic boulders for the natural and human environment.

From coastal geomorphometry to virtual environments

Communicating environmental change and mitigation scenarios to stakeholders and decision-makers can be challenging. Immersive environments offer an innovative approach for knowledge transfer, allowing science-based scenarios to be discussed interactively. The use of such environments is particularly helpful for the analysis of large, multi-component geospatial datasets, as commonly employed in the classification of ecosystems. Virtual environments can play an important role in conveying and discussing the findings gathered from these geomorphometric datasets. However, textured meshes and point clouds are not always well suited for direct import to a virtual reality or the creation of a truly immersive environment, and often result in geometrical artifacts, which can be misinterpreted during the import to a game engine. Such technical hurdles may lead to viewers rejecting the experience altogether, failing to achieve a higher educational purpose. In this study, we apply an asset-based approach to create an immersive virtual representation of a coastal environment. The focus hereby is on the coastal vegetation and changes in species distribution, which could potentially be triggered by the impact of climate change. We present an easy-to-use blueprint for the game engine EPIC Unreal Engine 5. In contrast to traditional virtual reality environments, which use static textured mesh data derived from photogrammetry, this asset-based approach enables the use of dynamic and physical properties (e.g. vegetation moving due to wind or waves), which makes the virtual environment more immersive. This will help to stimulate understanding and discussion amongst different stakeholders, and will also help to foster inclusion in earth- and environmental science education.

Civic science education for youth-driven water security: A behavioral development approach to strengthening climate resilience

Haiti is among the most climate-vulnerable nations in the world, and Haitian youth face disproportionate risks to their health and well-being. Yet, to date, few studies have partnered with young people to position them as agents of change addressing climate change impacts in their communities, particularly in Global South contexts. As a step toward addressing this important gap, the present study used in-depth interviews (N = 6) to explore the multi-faceted behavioral developmental impacts on Haitian students (ages 20–30 years) who took part in a participatory environmental education program focused on access to clean water in Jacmel, a coastal city in Southern Haiti. The program combined hydrology and ecosystem education with youth-led water quality testing, community surveys, and data mapping—enabling students to collect, analyze, and visualize locally-meaningful data with real-world significance. Thematic analysis (TA) of post-program interviews conducted with program staff (n = 2) and students (n = 4) resulted in three major themes describing program-based developmental impacts equipping youth to address climate-driven threats in their community: (1) learning and skills development: Youth gained a deeper knowledge of hydrological and ecological systems, as well as research, digital, and technology skills; (2) health and environmental behaviors: Youth were experiencing and advocating behavioral shifts associated with preventing waterborne illnesses and protecting local ecosystems; and (3) civic engagement: Youth were developing a critical mindset regarding power relations and social change and were simultaneously motivated to disseminate local data to raise community awareness and engage with local authorities to improve environmental conditions. Findings shed light on the transformative potential of environmental and civic science education to engage young people as key actors in building adaptive capacity and reducing climate vulnerability. Implications for developmental science are discussed.

Culturally sustaining pedagogy in an outdoor environmental science education program to support high school students’ identities as Indigenous people and scientists

This collaboration between the Nez Perce Tribe and the University of Idaho aimed to address the unique needs and perspectives required for Tribal Natural Resources Management (TNRM). TNRM involves the governance and caretaking of the land and waters, emphasizing the recognition of cultural significance, sovereignty, self-determination, and traditional knowledge systems. A workforce development program was created, focusing on Fisheries, Forestry, and Fire Management, while being grounded in Indigenous knowledge, Indigenous STEM identities, and culturally sustaining pedagogy. The philosophical foundations of the program emphasized the importance of integrating Indigenous knowledge and learning approaches alongside technical skills. By broadening the conceptions of “what counts” in science, students were encouraged to recognize the value of Indigenous knowledge and develop a sense of responsibility toward caring for the Land and waters. Data collected from the program revealed its success in helping students connect Indigenous ways of knowing to their understanding of STEM. Students found meaning in Indigenous knowledge as a means to perpetuate Nimiipuu lifeways, while also recognizing the utility of Western STEM. The involvement of Elders and Native professionals as teachers in the STEM curriculum highlighted the importance of intergenerational knowledge transmission. By combining Indigenous ways of knowing with technical skills, the program successfully laid the groundwork for students to become future leaders in Tribal Natural Resources Management, equipped with the necessary cultural, environmental, and scientific expertise to caretake Lands and waters effectively.

The More Training, the More Willingness? A Positive Spillover Effect Analysis of Voluntary Behavior in Environmental Protection

Volunteers trained in environmental science are the backbone of environmental protection. Therefore, it is necessary to study the pro-environmental behaviors of volunteers trained in environmental science and guide them to actively participate in pro-environmental actions. Compared with other kind of volunteers, volunteers trained in environmental science have more expertise on the premises, can this expertise strengthen their willingness to volunteer? Taking a group of university alumni trained in environmental science in city H as an example (N = 2349), this study investigates the potential mechanism of the positive spillover effect of volunteers trained in environmental science behavior. The volunteers in this sample showed the phenomenon of “the more training, the more willingness”: the degree to which environmental protection volunteers received environmental science education strengthened alumni’s willingness to participate. This paper uses the theory of planned behavior as a theoretical framework and serial mediation model as a methodology to investigate the factors that affect the willingness to participate in environmental protection volunteer services. This study identifies two paths from volunteer behavior to willingness: (1) profession → identity → willingness; and (2) profession → identity → pleasure → willingness. It is believed that the main intermediary variable of environmental protection volunteer participation is the sense of identity gained from receiving environmental protection education. Therefore, it is necessary to emphasize that the sense of identity is internalized into cognition and transformed into positive emotions, so as to promote the participation willingness of environmental protection volunteers.

Research Trend of Environmental Education in Science Based on Scopus Database

Objective: This study analyzes the trend of implementing environmental education in science research. Method: This research was conducted using the bibliometric literature study method. The data collection of this study used a Scopus database and was analyzed by the Vosviewer application. Result: From this study known that there is a significant increase in environmental education science research. The highest number of publications carried out in 2021 was six articles. The results of the VOSviewer visualization found 3 clusters red, green, and blue. Red cluster show related keyword research about education, curriculum, learning science, and education program. Green cluster show related keyword research about environmental education and science education. Blue cluster show related keyword research about sustainable development, science and technology, environmental technology, environmental science, and environmental sustainability. From the cluster, there are known that some theme related can be used to combine and use to research environmental education in science. Novelty: Analysis of these research trends can be used as a reference and a means of developing self-abilities concerning being an environmental educator in schools. Implementing environmental education can make students better understand and explore their abilities in science.

Institutionalising interdisciplinarity in PhD training: challenging and redefining expertise in problem-oriented research

Interdisciplinary research is gathering increasing support from sustainability scholars, however, there is little dialogue between scholarship on interdisciplinarity and interdisciplinary environmental science education. The aim of this paper is to take stock of the insights of studies of interdisciplinary research to inform environmental research and education. We take as our case study a research centre in Spain, which created an interdisciplinary PhD programme on climate change. The analysis is based on 18 interviews with PhD students and supervisors. We focus on: (i) the need to train experts while redefining expertise outside of disciplinary boundaries; (ii) the practical and institutional challenges of interdisciplinarity in the context of PhD training; and (iii) the challenges of assessing the quality across disciplines. Our results show that conflicts with institutional requirements lead to a tendency to abandon interdisciplinary aspects and to the training of experts narrowly centred on the specific problem they analyse.

Designing Immersive Virtual Reality Simulation for Environmental Science Education

Recently, severe environmental changes, such as global warming, climate change and environmental pollution, have become expected, and thus environmental education is becoming essential. The purpose of environmental education is to instill awareness in students to recognize and solve environmental problems. Virtual reality provides students with a spatial and temporal experience similar to reality, and it can increase their understanding of knowledge through immersion and interaction compared to traditional learning. In previous studies, virtual reality for education has mainly focused on experience, but it is difficult to find examples for environmental education. Hence, this research proposed an immersive virtual reality simulation for environmental education based on the virtual ecosystem model. It also presented two applications developed based on this simulation. This research aims at encouraging students’ active participation and motivation to solve the environmental problems while experiencing the results of interaction related to environmental factors in a virtual environment.

Teaching holistic environmental thought: A classroom approach

Climate change has exacerbated environmental problems globally, exposing the inadequacy of land management plans designed to function best under stable and predictable circumstances. Indigenous land management practices have received considerable attention for maintaining resilient, biodiverse ecosystems in the face of change and complexity. This has stimulated ample research on transdisciplinary collaboration between Western science and Indigenous Ways of Knowing (IWK) to promote sustainable land management practices. Equitable partnership that furthers these goals may remain out of reach, however, without addressing the ongoing marginalization and erasure of Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies. A fundamental shift toward epistemologically plural, multicultural approaches in environmental science education in the United States is vital for ameliorating deep-rooted, systemic, cultural injustices in land management. The failure to incorporate plural epistemologies in the classroom may help to explain the intractable nature of environmental problems through the suppression of ideological diversity needed to address complex problems. In this study, community-based design research (CBDR) was utilized over a three-year period to design a multicultural framework for environmental education in collaboration with tribal and place-based educators. It was conducted within a university-level environmental science course taught at the University of Washington in the Northwestern United States. This collaborative effort included members and educators from three Washington State tribes and a multidisciplinary team of K-12 and university-level instructors. Through an iterative process, our team developed curricula to decolonize environmental science education using holistic pedagogical tools from both Western and Indigenous traditions.

Çizgi Filmlerin 5. Sınıf Öğrencilerinin Çevre Okuryazarlığı Alt-boyutları Üzerine Etkileri: Su Elçileri Örneği

The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of an animated cartoon series on middle school student’s sub-dimensions of the environmental literacy. A quasi-experimental pre-post design with a control group is utilized. The sample is 33 volunteer 5th-grade students who attended intact classes. The objectives of the “Human and Environment” unit set the framework of the implementation and distance learning was used in both groups. In the control group, lecturing supported with presentations, interactive activities, and questioning was used during 5 weeks of the implementation. In the experimental group, the content and the activities are the same as the control group except watching animated cartoons. Episodes of the “Su Elçileri” series matched with the content and objectives of the unit were watched with the sequence of the objectives of the unit. It is ensured that the students realized the environmental problem discussed in each episode and think like the characters in the animated cartoon series. Research data were collected using Environmental Knowledge Test, Affective Dispositions towards the Environment Scale, Environmentally Responsible Behavior Scale, and Environmental Problems Attitude Scale. The findings indicate that exposure to the “Su Elçileri” animated cartoon series results in significantly better improvement in environmentally responsible behaviors and the attitude toward environmental problems than the control group. The findings draw attention to animated cartoons as a teaching strategy in environmental education and science education, especially in younger age groups.

Biodiversity Knowledge and Conceptions in Latin American: Towards an Integrative New Perspective for Education Research and Practice

Biodiversity plays a crucial role in ecosystem functioning by providing essential benefits to people and improving their well-being, i.e., regulating material and non-material services; especially in cultural and natural rich landscapes, such as those found in Latin-American countries. Nevertheless, in spite of the utmost importance of sustaining human life, biodiversity is not only declining at unprecedented rates, but also this pervasive degradation has revealed both our mutual dependence and interconnectedness, with a profound need for a societal transformative change. To help meet this challenge, the aim of this work is to synthesise pertinent and state-of-the-art knowledge on biodiversity education by utilising a holistic approach and a Latin-American point of view, which will contribute towards understanding and targeting complex socio-ecological issues. The findings have unveiled an abundant number of studies in Latin American countries that have investigated the topic of teachers’ and students’ knowledge and their conceptions of biodiversity from both conventional scientific knowledge and interculturality. By promoting an integrative dialogue among these categories and their subcategories, several implications arose concerning scientists engaged in public outreach, environmental and sustainable development and science education researchers, those engaged in cultural studies, formal and non-formal education, and school teachers.

Teaching the Environmental Science Education in the 21st-Century

The school should reflect the real world. It should serve as the training ground for students to prepare in the actual workplace. The context in which courses are taught and learned has changed tremendously throughout the years. The advent of technology, the innovations in teaching, the demands of society, and the past and emerging environmental issues contributed to these changes. Environmental science is commonly an underestimated course as compared to others despite its critical role in environmental sustainability, community, and solving climate change-related problems. Students show less appreciation of its importance and difficulty in learning and applying its concepts to reality. The way that Environmental science courses should be more like the reality. As such, a new paradigm is needed to address these things to prepare students once they have embarked in their actual workplace. A meaningful learning that is non-fragmented, dynamic, adaptive, technology-supported, flexible, future work-ready, and enhances critical thinking is imperative. Though there are already existing multiple frameworks in teaching environmental science, a new framework that offers students an opportunity to build and empower students’ learning ability through effective syntax is crucial in today’s era.

From Industry Professionals to Secondary School Teachers: The Relationship between Second Career-Changing Teachers and Social Cognitive Career Theory

The science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and teaching field is facing significant human resources shortages, particularly in the subject matter of environmental sciences education. The current study collected interview and focus group data and sharing from 220 pre-service and in-service second career-changing teachers in the United States about their career decision and decision-making process. The results of this study indicated that the participants believe educating the next generation is their priority of joining the education and teaching profession. Many expressed that the populations of STEM teachers with professional and industry experiences are greatly needed. The outcomes of this study provided the blueprint for researchers, school leaders, policymakers and human resources planners to reform and polish their current plans for teachers training and professional development in order to solve the workforce issues in the fields of STEM education and teaching. Received: 29 May 2021 / Accepted: 15 July 2021 / Published: 5 September 2021

Justice-centered education amid the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new saliency to educational efforts to ensure every person is able to make effective personal decisions and participate in civic affairs. However, social and political systems often constrain individual opportunities to enact personal decision-making. These sociopolitical contexts necessitate an increased emphasis on justice-centered education that equips students to recognize and respond to inequities in local and global contexts. In this article, we present three case studies of areas relevant to K-12 education to which the pandemic has drawn critical attention: how scientific knowledge changes, how decisions are made about science-based issues, and how the impacts of such decisions cascade in the environment. Collectively, these cases highlight the importance of justice-centered pedagogies for learning about complex socioscientific issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic and how transboundary justice-centered education could support the meaningful convergence of environmental education, science education, and social studies education.

Designing environmental storylines to achieve the complementary aims of environmental and science education through science and engineering practices

Environmental education is implemented in formal curricula in multiple ways, including K-12 science. In the United States, the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) has provided a lens for considering how the goals of environmental education and formal science education may overlap and complement one another. Potential synergies emerge from similarities between NGSS science and engineering practices and the skills of questioning, analysis, and interpretation in the NAAEE Guidelines for Excellence. In this study, middle school students were engaged in an environmental storyline unit that supported their abilities to ask questions, design and conduct investigations, and develop model-based explanations, practices consistent across both fields. Participating students demonstrated positive gains in nature relatedness environmental attitudes. This study provides evidence that curricular design around the practices of science and environmental education connects the goals of each and may be a promising approach to broadening access to effective environmental education experiences. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2021.1949569 .

Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century: Increasing Diversity and Community Participation to Achieve Environmental and Social Justice.

Communities of color are disproportionately burdened by environmental pollution and by obstacles to influence policies that impact environmental health. Black, Hispanic, and Native American students and faculty are also largely underrepresented in environmental engineering programs in the United States. Nearly 80 participants of a workshop at the 2019 Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) Research and Education Conference developed recommendations for reversing these trends. Workshop participants identified factors for success in academia, which included adopting a broader definition for the impact of research and teaching. Participants also supported the use of community-based participatory research and classroom action research methods in engineering programs for recruiting, retaining, and supporting the transition of underrepresented students into professional and academic careers. However, institutions must also evolve to recognize the academic value of community-based work to enable faculty, especially underrepresented minority faculty, who use it effectively, to succeed in tenure promotions. Workshop discussions elucidated potential causal relationships between factors that influence the co-creation of research related to academic skills, community skills, mutual trust, and shared knowledge. Based on the discussions from this workshop, we propose a pathway for increasing diversity and community participation in the environmental engineering discipline by exposing students to community-based participatory methods, establishing action research groups for faculty, broadening the definition of research impact to improve tenure promotion experiences for minority faculty, and using a mixed methods approach to evaluate its impact.

On The Importance of Ecology and Ecological Education in Modern Conditions

The specific features of environmental science and environmental education are analyzed in terms of the formation of an environmental outlook among the population and the preservation of the natural environment as the habitat of the human race.

Design of an Interactive Device for Children’s Environmental Science Education on Plastic Pollution in Polar Regions Based on Open Source Programming Language

With open-source programming languages, Processing and Arduino, this device realizes man-machine interaction. It has the characteristics of a wide application range and a strong visual expression. Designers and artists can make their ideas real through Processing and Arduino. In recent years, plastic waste can be seen in every corner of the world, which means that raising people’s awareness of environmental protection is urgently needed. Childhood is a key period for developing environmental awareness. In this paper, a popular science device related to environmental protection, taking children as the main target group, was designed and produced. The device provides a combination of technology and art to educate children about environmental enlightenment through external hardware configurations (switches, light sensing and pressure sensing) and on-screen images that show polar bears living in large amounts of plastic pollution.

Message from the Editor: Why Did We Change the Title and Journal Web Site?<br />  

International Journal of Environmental and Science Education (IJESE) was founded in 2006 to disseminate high-quality open access research works related to psychological, sociological, economic, and organizational aspects of environmental science, environmental education, and science education, as well as evaluation studies of curriculum development in these fields. From its very first issue, IJESE has proven to be a distinguished scientific platform for experts throughout the World. Shortly after its launch, the journal was included in many respectable indexes such as ERIC and SCOPUS. Due to a miscommunication between the founders of IJESE and the national ISSN center, the title of the journal was recorded as “International Journal of Environmental Science Education” (details are available at https:// portal.issn.org/resource/ISSN/1306-3065) instead of “International Journal of Environmental and Science Education”. Missing word: “and” in the title, generated a discrepancy between the aims of the journal and the title. Additionally, it caused many problems with index centers, such as loss of a considerable number of citations, etc. In 2019, IJESE was acquired by Veritas Publications, UK, a London-based publisher of scientific journals. Veritas Publications, UK, decided to make the following changes to increase the impact and visibility of the journal: 1) During the transfer of the ISSN record for the journal, the title of the journal was changed to “Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education”. This change has cleared the inconsistency for the title. Additionally, the word: “Interdisciplinary” emphasized the interdisciplinary nature inherent in the journal’s aims and scope. 2) ijese.com is obtained in addition to ijese.net. Old issues of the journal remain accessible in ijese.net, while new issues of the journal continue to be published in ijese.com. 3) Article processing fee is waived for all articles. 4) All published articles are assigned unique DOI numbers. 5) All incoming manuscripts are subject to screening against plagiarism using a similarity check software. 6) More rigorous editorial criteria are enforced to accept a manuscript for publication. Consequently, readers of IJESE enjoy top quality articles written by authors from diverse geographic locations. We invite you to visit www.ijese.com for new issues and to submit your manuscripts to IJESE.