Learning material for constructing environmental understanding

Abstract

Environmental acknowledgement or awareness by itself does not necessarily implicate that people have understood the causes, effects and impact of environmental issues. Understanding and critically thinking about environmental problems is crucial and is not always addressed within the environmental education process. This deficiency is mainly due to the lack of adequate learning environments and suitable learning material. This study proposes an environmental education learning environment that was tested at the Fayerweather Street School in Cambridge, MA. During this study, motivated participants were fostered to engage in a personal project to address particular environmental issues, and were given the opportunity to design a methodology for conducting their own environmental projects. The learning environment included the use of technology-based learning material, such as electronic boards and environmental sensors, for people to interact with the chosen environment and produce data to support their arguments while addressing the environmental issue. As a result of the study, the participants produced two environmental projects. One of them was about measuring noise levels around the school, and it brought out the causes and effects of noise pollution in the context of the school. The other project was about measuring groundlevel ozone and comparing indoors and outdoors concentrations, this project exposed some characteristics of ground-level ozone particles and its formation process. The proposed learning environment provided an opportunity for people to understand environmental issues and critically address them within a meaningful context and it contributes to the enhancement of the process of environmental education.