Nature Clubs Research Articles

Exploring Students’ Academic Emotions Through a Conservation Education Program

Research and practice in educational settings should consider exploring the rich diversity of emotions experienced by students outside classroom settings, including nature clubs, as a conservation education program. This study aimed to conduct an exploratory case study to explore students' academic emotions during conservation education programs. The case study was carried out for four weeks to determine what can be learned from a single case about the students’ emotional aspects of the conservation education program in the Nature Club. Data collection is conducted through observation, interview, and collection of documents at the end of every activity. The data consisted of field notes and videotapes from observation, interview transcripts, and student emotions diary (SED). The research participant was 21 elementary students aged 9 to 11 who joined the Nature Club conducted by the Little Fire Pace (LFP) Community as one of their conservation education programs. The result shows that conservation content which is also part of science, can be learned and stimulate the emergence of students' academic emotions, both positive and negative. The dominant emotion in nature club activities is the happy emotion, and the slightest emotion arising from this activity is disgust. Then the results of student interest in all activities were more remarkable than boredom. Finally, suggestions are made on implications for teacher or pre-service teacher education for conservation or science education.

Nature Club Activity: Knowledge Exploration on Javan Slow Loris (Nycticebus javanicus) and Protected Endemic Animals in Conservation Education Program

Conservation education can increase knowledge about endangered animals, one of which is the Javan slow loris (Nycticebus javanicus), and protected endemic animals in Indonesia, and this can be done through the nature club activity as one of the conservation education programs. However, most students are indifferent to conservation or science education. This individual influence is the characteristics and dispositions students bring to learning, such as interest, effort, values, and perceived abilities. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of conservation education programs through nature club activities on students' knowledge of Javan slow loris and protected endemic animals. The research method is the experimental method, with the research design used as one group pretest-postest design; the data collection technique is done by test and observation. The results showed that the activities carried out were effective on students' knowledge of Javan lorises and protected endemic animals, as evidenced by the calculation of the N-gain score indicating that the average N-gain score (mean) was 0.614.ABSTRAK: Pendidikan konservasi dapat menambah ilmu mengenai hewan yang terancam punah salah satunya yaitu Kukang Jawa (Nycticebus javanicus) serta hewan endemik yang dilindungi yang ada di Indonesia, hal ini dapat dilakukan melalui program klub alam yang ada pada pendidikan konservasi. Akan tetapi mayoritas siswa belum mendapatkan pendidikan konservasi dan hanya menjadi bagian kecil dari pendidikan sains. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui efektivitas pendidikan konservasi melalui kegiatan klub alam terhadap pengetahuan siswa mengenai kukang jawa dan hewan endemik yang dilindungi. Metode penelitian yang digunakan yaitu metode eksperimen, dengan desain penelitian yang digunakan adalah one group pretest-posttest design, teknik pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan tes dan observasi. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kegiatan yang dilakukan efektif terhadap pengetahuan siswa mengenai kukang jawa dan hewan endemik yang dilindungi, dibuktikan dari hasil perhitungan N-gain score menunjukkan bahwa rata-rata skor N-gain (mean) adalah 0,614

Calcium carbonate-modified plant sporopollen capsule as an eco-friendly microvehicle for controlled release of pesticide.

In this work, natural club moss (Lycopodium clavatum, LC) spores with a porous surface morphology and highly uniform size distribution were engineered into controlled-release microvehicles for pesticide delivery. As a proof of concept, a widely used fungicide, fluazinam (FLU), was successfully loaded into LC spores and then modified with different amounts of CaCO3 (CaC) to extend the efficacy duration of FLU. Significantly, as the control target of FLU, clubroot disease is a worldwide destructive disease of cruciferous crops, and its development is favored by acidic soils and can be suppressed at high Ca concentrations. Fabricated FLU@LC-CaC microcapsules, FLU loading and CaCO3 deposition were systematically characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. The as-prepared FLU@LC-CaC microcapsules showed sustained-release behaviors and were potentially able to supplement the Ca concentration in acidic environments. This approach synergistically enhanced in vivo bioactivity for the on-demand control of clubroot disease. An in vivo bioassay revealed that the control efficacy of FLU@LC-CaC against clubroot disease in pak choi (Brassica chinensis) (66.4%) was 1.7-fold higher than that of a commercial FLU suspension concentrate (38.2%) over the course of the cultivation period (35 days). This work provides new ideas not only for developing eco-friendly and scalable microvehicles for pesticide delivery based on natural sporopollen, but also for unconventional research perspectives in on-demand pest management based on their occurrence characteristics. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

Social Groups Are Concrete Material Particulars

AbstractIt is natural to think that social groups are concrete material particulars, but this view faces an important objection. Suppose the chess club and nature club have the same members. Intuitively, these are different clubs even though they have a common material basis. Some philosophers take these intuitions to show that the materialist view must be abandoned. I propose an alternative explanation. Social groups are concrete material particulars, but there is a psychological explanation of nonidentity intuitions. Social groups appear coincident but nonidentical because they are perceived to be governed by conflicting social norms.

Perception on the Effectiveness of School Vegetable Garden Programme

School vegetable garden is the practice of cultivation of vegetables in and around the school premises by the students. School vegetable garden programme is a promising tool that can teach cultivation of vegetable within the formal educational framework. It provides opportunities for young minds to understand the basic lessons of agriculture and develop an affinity towards it. A study was conducted among 180 student respondents among six schools by adopting the procedure of two stage random sampling, in Nenmara and Kollengode blocks of Palakkad district in Kerala. All the selected schools had functional school vegetable gardens and were practicing activities either through agriculture or nature clubs. The perceived effectiveness of school vegetable garden by students revealed that development of life skills was found to be the most important outcome. The constraints faced by students were more time spent for garden activities and difficulty in maintaining the garden during vacation.

Being in nature together: Photovoice of an Icelandic youth nature club

Being in nature together: Photovoice of an Icelandic youth nature club

Nature club programs promote adolescents’ conservation behavior: A case study in China’s biodiversity hotspot

Outdoor education programs are promoted to enhance connections between individuals and nature to foster pro-environmental behavior. However, behavioral change is a complex, and often difficult psychological process. This study aimed to determine if establishing nature clubs in schools could promote students’ conservation behaviors by mitigating traditional hunting and insect eating in Xishuangbanna, China. Outcomes were assessed using questionnaires and interviews. The program enhanced adolescents’ self-reported animal conservation through persuading others not to hunt birds and not eat native insects. Thus, we propose that nature kits and recommendations derived from this program can serve as guides for developing similar campaigns elsewhere.

Many Children in the Woods: Applying Principles of Community-Based Social Marketing to a Family Nature Club

Abstract A “new nature movement” to connect people to nature for health and well-being has encouraged the formation of family nature clubs (FNCs), which regularly bring groups of families together ...

Push and pull factors determine adolescents' intentions of participation in nature observation: Reconnecting local students with nature in China

ABSTRACTNature experiences are essential for fostering pro-environmental behavior. In this study, a wildlife observation toolbox was provided to students to encourage participation in nature observation clubs. A total of 340 adolescents joined the clubs. We identified the determinants of participation intentions with a mixed approach combing questionnaires and follow-up interviews. Nature connectedness and previous nature experiences were significant “push” factors for participation intention in nature clubs. No interest in plants and animals as “push” factor discouraged participation. This study highlights the importance of nature connectedness and makes another call for changing adolescents' environmental perception and access to nature.

Ethical Correlates of Environmental Consciousness among Members and Non-Members of Nature Club

The need and relevance of the concerns for nature and a pro-environmental attitude and behaviour is at its peak in the present world. It has been long recognized that ecological balance and safety of nature is central to human existence on earth. Despite this understanding, human activities are deteriorating the earth. If this situation is allowed to continue, the earth will soon turn out to be a useless and lifeless planet, along with marking the very end of human existence. One way to tackle this crisis is to reduce and prevent human actions that pose threats to nature and environment. A sustainable change in such actions is achieved effectively only by bringing about a change in ethics, values and attitudes of people. Ethics refers to a code of conduct. Values held by people contribute to their ethics. Since values are acquired, it can be instilled into people through different means; also implying that they are changeable. The concept of environmental consciousness refers to specific psychological factors related to individual’s propensity to engage in pro-environmental behaviors (Zelezny & Schultz, 2000:367). Environmental consciousness can also be addressed as the psychological dimension of pro-environmental behavior. Objectives: The purpose of the present study is to investigate the ‘ethical correlates of environmental consciousness among members and non-members of nature club’. Method: (a) Participants: The study was conducted on 54 high school students from various schools in Ernakulam district, Kerala. Participants included both members (n=21) and non-members (n=33) of any kind of nature club. (b) Materials: The Ethical Values Assessment (EVA- Jensen & Padilla, 2004) and New Ecological Paradigm Scale- Revised (NEP Revised-Dunlap, R. E., & Van Liere, K., Mertig, A., &Jones, R. E., 2000). EVA measures 3 categories of ethics, namely: Ethics of Autonomy, Ethics of Community and Ethics of Divinity. NEP scale assesses ecological worldview along 5 dimensions, namely: Reality of Limits to Growth, Ant anthropocentricism, Fragility of Nature’s Balance, Rejection of Exemptionalism and the Possibility of Eco-crisis. (c) Analysis: Analysis was done using ‘t- test’ and ‘correlation’. (d) Results: There is significant difference between members and non-members of nature club in the dimensions Ethics of community, Overall ethics, Overall ecological worldview and Awareness of the possibility of eco-crisis. Students with membership in nature clubs have higher Ethics of community, Overall ethics, Overall ecological worldview (significance at 5% level) and Awareness of the possibility of eco-crisis (significance at 1% level). Also, Overall ethics has a significant positive correlation with Overall ecological worldview. Conclusion: Membership in nature club is found to enhance better environmental consciousness and ethics. The study implies that making students part of nature clubs facilitate pro-environmental behavior and better ethics.

Family nature clubs: An intergenerational opportunity to foster love of the natural world

Three experiences have been found to foster long-lasting care for the natural environment: time spent enjoying nature, especially during childhood; a close, often familial, role model for nature appreciation; and participation in a nature-focused group that offers direct learning opportunities. Family nature clubs (FNCs) offer all three experiences by regularly bringing families together with a guide to explore and learn about nature. This article reports on a recent doctoral study of over 340 people representing 47 FNCs that sought to understand how these groups may foster environmental sustainability as well as individual, family and community wellbeing. Study results on the effects of FNC participation are presented to help illuminate how family time spent in nature can encourage a connection with and love for nature that may, in turn, foster pro-environmental behaviour.

The effectiveness of environmental education workshops for teachers, learners and schools in Malaysia

In Malaysia, various efforts have been introduced to increase the knowledge, skills and awareness of citizens to the benefit of the environment by means of a variety of programmes. However, uncertainty about the effectiveness of environmental education programmes and the way they contribute to sustainability still exists. This paper reports on an evaluation of the Kelab Pencinta Alam (KPA) (School Nature Clubs) programme organised by the Malaysia Nature Society and the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia. The Kellogg Logic Model was used as an evaluative instrument as the impact of the programme had to be determined. This was done through questionnaires to teachers and principals in KPA schools. School visits were also undertaken to evaluate workplace success and to validate the findings from the questionnaires. Overall, the evaluation showed a high level of success for the programme.

Education for the conservation of great apes and other wildlife in northern Congo—the importance of nature clubs

Education for the conservation of great apes and other wildlife in northern Congo—the importance of nature clubs

The Market Provision of Club Goods in the Presence of Scale Economies

A natural club monopoly exists when economies of scale are so significant relative to population size that, in the efficient allocation, the entire population is included in a single club. Under these circumstances, an uncontested monopolist will inefficiently exclude some individuals from the club if marginal congestion costs are sufficiently high when the entire population is included. If admitting that the entire population is profit-maximizing, then the facility size chosen is also efficient. A perfectly contestable monopoly is always efficient. External economies of scale exist when the cost of each facility declines as more facilities are provided. This externality leads a competitive market to provide too few clubs, but a monopolist will provide an efficient allocation because it internalizes the cost externality. Copyright 1990 by The London School of Economics and Political Science.

A New Parrot Fish of the Genus Xenoscarus from the Gulf of California

While preparing a report on the wrasses collected by the Stanford Natural History Club expeditions to the Gulf of California, interesting collections of labroid fishes were made available to me by the California, Academy of Sciences. They were obtained by the Steinhart Acquarium collector, Mr. Donald A. Simpson, at Bocochibampo Bay near Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico. Among this material were two scarids of an undescribed species of Xenoscarus. They represent the first record of this genus outside of Peru and the second known species of the genus.

Activities for nature clubs

Activities for nature clubs

The Badger in Britain

THE Cumberland Nature Club of Cockermouth is organizing a nation-wide protest against the action of the Cumberland War Agricultural Executive Committee in including the badger in the list of 'vermin' recommended for destruction by the pests officer. The usefulness of the badger's habits has long been accepted in natural history circles, although in game preservation and rural circles it still suffers persecution for the misdeeds of the fox or occasional poultry raids by single individuals. The badger, with the fox and the stoat, is a natural 'brake' upon the rabbit population of the countryside. Its diet comprises fruit, roots, small rodents, contents of wasps' ard bees' nests, rabbits, and sometimes small birds on the ground, and decaying animal or vegetable matter.

Frederick Wallace Edwards, 1888-1940

F. W. Edwards was born at Fletton, Peterborough, on 28 November 1888, and his premature death took place at Letchworth on 15 November 1940—within a few days of his fiftysecond birthday. He was a son of Cephas Luther Edwards, who came of a line of farmers and craftsmen of Welsh origin that had settled in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire for several generations. Although a commercial traveller by profession, Edwards’s father had an unusual interest in philosophy. When he retired his business colleagues were astonished by his selection of a set of Greek classics as a parting gift. Edwards’s mother was Miss Automella Sargent, daughter of a solicitor and of Hugenot descent. She had a strongly developed personality and was keenly devoted to outdoor nature. O f their children Frederick was the eldest of three brothers, of whom the youngest (D. L. Edwards) is now director of the Norman Lockyer Observatory at Sid— mouth, and the second brother (W. N. Edwards) is keeper of the Geological Department of the British Museum (Natural History). After a brief period at a private school the brothers went to the then newly opened Cambridge and County School for Boys. They all had developed great interest in the world of nature around them and were fortunate in coming under the influence of a stimulating biology teacher in the person of Dr Maria Dawson, who had previously been a pupil of Professor H. Marshall Ward, F.R.S. Dr Dawson recalls the great devotion shown by Frederick to both zoology and botany and his enthusiasm for field work along with the Natural History Club.

Bird Banding as an Aid to the Study of Migration

single pair* remained in the town until about the twentieth of November, nearly ten weeks after the rest of the flock had gone. No trace was seen of them after that date and it is feared they froze to death. The following table, taken from the records of the Greencastle Nature Club and its successor The Franklin County (Pa.) Nature Club shows the arrival and a few of the departure dates of the Purple Martin at Greencastle over the period of seven and a half years from 1915 to 1922:

This Meeting of the Nature Club

This Meeting of the Nature Club