In this article we describe the development, implementation, and some of the early impacts of Nurture thru Nature (NtN), an American after-school and summer program designed to introduce elementary school students in disadvantaged, urban public schools to natural science and environmental education. The program, which began operations in 2010 as a…

The study analyzes the meaning attributed to the GLOBE program by its former participants. The data were collected by conducting interviews with 19 adult respondents who left the program at least five years ago. The respondents interpreted the program as a strong community shaped by routine as well as extraordinary program activities and by their…

Building on self-determination theory, this study presents a model of intrinsic motivation and engagement as "active ingredients" in garden-based education. The model was used to create reliable and valid measures of key constructs, and to guide the empirical exploration of motivational processes in garden-based learning. Teacher- and…

This study explored the practices of teachers, nonformal science educators, community organizers, youth program managers, and other educators facilitating youth participation in local environmental action, as well as the experiences of some of the youth involved. We conducted narrative interviews with 33 educators facilitating youth environmental…

Curriculum reform in environmental and science education now taking place in Ghana focuses on the community and ecosystems as the context of education. In Ghana, students conduct science investigations that include games, word searches, crossword puzzles, case studies, role play, debates, projects, and ecological profiles. This curriculum reflects…

Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Project Green Reach (PGR) is a children's program that has offered garden-based youth education since 1990. PGR focuses on Grade K-8 students and teachers from local Title I schools who work in teams on garden and science projects. In this exploratory study, the authors used field observations, document analysis, and past…

Recent science education reform proponents explicitly put forward the idea that all students, regardless of culture, gender, race, or socioeconomic status, are capable of understanding and doing science. To address this need, the authors have developed and implemented a field-based urban ecology science program to engage traditionally…

The authors surveyed 15 secondary school teachers in 5 states about how they designed and implemented long-term stream monitoring in their classrooms and the problems and benefits they encountered. The authors surveyed students involved in the stream monitoring projects to obtain their perspective. Teachers reported that stream monitoring provided…

Based on interviews with 18 professors of education, this study provides a report on the ways in which environmental education (EE) theory and practice are currently incorporated into preservice elementary education science and social studies methods courses. It further reports perceptions of faculty about the barriers to incorporating EE in…

One of the fundamental goals of environmental education (EE) is to equip students with the skills to make more thoughtful decisions about environmental issues. Many examples of environmental and science education curricula work to address this goal by providing students with up-to-date information about a myriad of environmental issues from a…

Describes the Environmental Education Curriculum Inventory, which was used to evaluate environmental education (EE) curricula and programs to determine how well they represent EE's substantive structure as expressed in the Goals for Curriculum Development in Environmental Education. (Contains 28 references.) (Author/YDS)

This article includes a conversation with four environmental education classroom teachers. The author introduces the four classroom teachers, Marie Marrs, Barb Pietrucha, Vicki Newberry, and Dara Lukonen. In the interview, the four environmental education classroom teachers describe the environmental education in their classrooms. Three of these…

Investigates the influence of the educational program Nature on the Way to School on children's everyday perception of species. Involves more than 4000 children between the ages of 8-16 years old from 248 classes in Switzerland. Investigates possible influences of the program with the help of pretest and posttest questionnaires. (Contains 59…

Uses four student-led investigations conducted as part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded 'Explorations from an Aerial Perspective' program to demonstrate how participatory action research can provide a framework for realizing environmental education goals. (Author/MM)

Describes a program evaluation of the Rouge Education Project (REP), a school-based environmental education program that uses water monitoring, telecommunications, and student actions to improve water quality. Reports that results indicated that the REP met its goals of increasing awareness and concern about the Rouge River and developing a…