| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which environmental
attitudes improve in students while they are involved in the development and use of a
school environmental site.
This study consisted of four sixth grade classes, approximately 80 students,
from Mitchell Middle School in Racine, Wisconsin. Two classes represented the
treatment group while the other two classes represented the control. Both treatment
and control groups were given a pretest survey based on the structure of the The
Children's Attitude Toward the Environment Scale (Musser and Malkus 1994) with
modified statements related to things students would experience interacting in the
environmental site: plants, animals, chemical use, the environment, waste, ethics.
For each question, the survey's format gave children a choice between two
statements. The students chose which statement was most like them. Next to each
statement were a large box and a small box. The large box meant "I am a lot like this
person". The small box meant "I am a little like this person". The students chose the
box that best represented themselves next to their chosen statement.
The treatment group was then immersed in the development of the
environmental site. Activities included removing weedy vegetation, hauling topsoil
into the raised garden beds, generating lists of compatible native Wisconsin plants,
researching and making books on the native plants, developing a planting layout for
the courtyard, ordering the plants, and planting the native plants in the environmental
site.
After the treatment was completed, both the control and treatment groups were
given the same survey as a posttest.
The pre and posttest surveys were tabulated in the following manner: Each of
the survey statements had four possible choices. Each of these choices was allotted a
number from 1 to 4 with 4 representing the highest environmentally conscious attitude.
A total individual score was determined by totaling the score for each of the 14
responses. This means that individual scores could range from 14 to 56. The
individual scores were used to calculate the mean individual score. In addition, each
individual survey statement was analyzed for its individual results by tallying the
number of responses for each of the 4 possible responses. These mean scores were
then compared to find changes in environmental attitudes.
The overall conclusion from these comparisons is that environmental attitudes
did not change. This leads to the possible conclusion that involvement in the
development on an environmental site, in itself, does not change environmental
attitudes over the short term. A possible reason for this is that the environmental
issues represented in the site development and survey were not discussed in enough
depth for a change in environmental attitudes to occur. Finally, it's possible that
students needed to play more of a leadership role in site development decisions so
they could lead, influence and encourage student ownership. | en_US |
