Retooling Student Engagement with Environment through Empowering Education
Type of Session
Full Presentation Panel
Additional abstracts
Renewable Energy Education: Does it impact Students’ perception of climate change? Does environmental education alter students’ attitudes towards environment?
Nirav S. Patel, Cornell University
Concerns over global climate change, environmental degradation, and dwindling nonrenewable energy resources have prompted the need for an effective Renewable Energy Education (REE). The study evaluates attitudes of educators and their students towards Renewable Energy Systems (RES) across five states (DE, MD, NY, OH, and PA). It specifically examines information and attitude-based factors that affect REE. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether the students of teachers trained in REE were more likely to pursue renewable energy education, compared to students of teachers who had not attended similar workshops. A survey tool was administered to two groups of students: 1) students of trained teachers, 2) students of untrained teachers. Our results indicate that while workshop attendance influenced educator attitudes, such effects were not passed down to students. Students when measured on their subjective norms on learning about renewable energy place greater emphasis on their teachers than they do on their parents or friends. The students across sites place direct emphasis on systemic educational drivers (tests and teachers). Societal norms (poverty, hunger, and obesity) and subjective norms (parents and friends) have little traction on students’ (grades 8-12) learning. We find that students were less aware of issues related to renewable energy and climate change. The perception is that climate change is distant, and not an immediate concern, such as poverty and hunger. This suggests a dissonance that can only be addressed through an interdisciplinary curricula adoption of renewable energy. More broadly, we conclude that educational interventions might spur innovation and generate awareness but viewing them singularly as broad transformative agents would be unrealistic. An interdisciplinary STEM curriculum will be able to bring these distant issues to the forefront of immediate issues such as hunger and poverty.
Sustainability Flash Lab—or "Why is There a Furnace in the Middle of the Classroom?"
Mark Collins, University of Pittsburgh
By starting with students' houses/apartments/dorms as focal points of resource use (and by using utility bills, furnaces, water fountains and other in-class tools), instructors concentrated attention on students' personal consumption to access larger, global issues of sustainability. This presentation reports on the first class' experience.
Thanks to funding from the National Science Foundation ("Developing Highly Qualified Middle Grades Teachers with Expertise in STEM Disciplines," J. Cartier, PI: D. Mosse, M. Smith, M. Bilec, M Collins co-PIs; grant # 1240000), we developed a pilot "Sustainability Flash Lab" based on the work of Orin Genderloos of the University of Michigan/Dearborn. The course was offered as an elective in the multidisciplinary Bachelor of Arts – Environmental Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh. This two-credit, once-weekly class of 17 students first met during Spring Term 2014. (Instructors: Mark Collins, Shaun Tomaszewski; TA: Rylee Kercher)
The class's immediate goal (based on Genderloos) was to develop awareness of personal consumption ("Students are unaware of their own consumption rates, 'typical' consumption rates, what affects consumption rates, how rates are measured, nor how consumption rates compare locally, nationally, or globally"-- Genderloos). In addition, we wanted to emphasize the inherent complexities of sustainability. By exploring the inputs and outputs of energy and resources, our study of sustainability asked broader questions: How do we measure production and consumption? How do geographical and socio-economic environments affect these things? How do we go beyond traditional measurements to quantify more comprehensive impacts and life-cycles? By examining energy and resource use in one’s home or apartment, one can trace inputs and outputs to their source/destination, and begin to understand the complex web of production, distribution, delivery, and environmental consequences of disposal. We then investigated how these metrics change due to location and societal practices, as well as changes created through adoption of conservation and renewable energy. The ultimate goal is to reflect, at cultural and philosophical levels, on our energy/resource usage.
Teaching for psychological wellbeing: Collective roles and student empowerment
Ian Peisner, University of Utah
Environmental Studies and Sciences is often recognized as “the bad news major” in which students cultivate understanding and even empathy, but often leave courses feeling paralyzed by despair. This leaves ESS educators in a precarious situation. How do we foster comprehension of complex challenges without leaving our students feeling depressed, overwhelmed, or unable to create change?
Increasingly, we see research addressing the psychological effect of understanding complex socio-ecological isssues like climate change in which potential remedies for increased anxiety and depression include disrupting isolation and working collectively for change (see Reser et al, 2011; Nurse et al, 2010; Fritze et al, 2008). In fact, much has been written about communication efforts that focus on the benefits of change and of working in groups (see Rees and Bamberg, 2014; Fisher and Irvine, 2010; Mohr, 2000). Our study was designed to explore whether self-identified collective roles are correlated with increased student empowerment.
Specifically, we explored how students in an environmental justice course (n=60) described their roles in large-scale systemic environmental justice issues as either individual or collective. We then engaged students in an empowerment survey to see if a positive correlation existed between empowerment and self-identified collective action roles. We also considered the changing ratio of individual vs. collective roles over the semester to better assess citizenship-related course outcomes. In the presentation, we will share relevant literature as well as our results in the context of teaching for psychological well-being.
Kirk S. Lawrence, St. Joseph’s College, klawrence@sjcny.edu. Co-authors: S. Suzanne Franck; David Moisan
Contributing to Environmental Public Policy: A Survey on Single-Use Plastic Bags
Primary Contact
Mr. Mark Collins, University of Pittsburgh
Mr Nirav S. Patel, Ph.D. Candidate (Natural Resources), Cornell University
Dr. Adrienne Cachelin, University of Utah
Presenters
Mr. Mark Collins, University of Pittsburgh
E-mail address (preferred) or phone number
Title of paper
Sustainability Flash Lab—or "Why is There a Furnace in the Middle of the Classroom?"
Mr Nirav S. Patel, Ph.D. Candidate (Natural Resources), Cornell University
E-mail address (preferred) or phone number
Title of paper
Renewable Energy Education: Does it impact Students’ perception of climate change? Does environmental education alter students’ attitudes towards environment?
Mr. Ian Peisner, University of Utah
E-mail address (preferred) or phone number
Title of paper
Teaching for Psychological Wellbeing: Collective Action Roles and Student Empowerment
Dr. Kirk S. Lawrence, Ph.D., St. Joseph's College
E-mail address (preferred) or phone number
Title of paper
Contributing to Environmental Public Policy: A Survey on Single-Use Plastic Bags