Hoping for Clean Water: Emerging Environmental Literacy During a Service-Learning Program

• In Event: Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: Experimenting With Student Engagement, Responsibility, and Service to Place

Abstract

Adolescents benefit from service-learning programs that provide them with opportunities to participate in decision making and solve real-world problems. In this mixed-methods research study, we implemented an environmental service-learning program with eighth grade students at a public charter school. We had 2 primary goals: 1) To measure the extent to which students changed their environmental knowledge, attitudes, skills or behaviors after program participation, and 2) To describe students’ emerging environmental literacy during and after program participation. Data sources include pre- and post-surveys, interviews and students’ written work. Results highlight increases in students’ knowledge about and connection to the environment. Students’ writing and reflections provide rich details about their sense of responsibility for the river ecosystem and empathy for aquatic animals.

Authors

• Eileen G. Merritt, University of Virginia

• Christopher Rates, University at Buffalo SUNY

• Alison Elizabeth Baroody, San Francisco State University

• Sara E. Rimm-Kaufman, University of Virginia