The Prairie Science Classroom: Original Outcome Durability and Impact on the Connection to Nature
Abstract
Environmental Education (EE) seeks to create an informed citizenry capable of taking action on environmental issues. Recent calls for more consistent evaluation of EE point to a need for more long-term evaluations as well as more qualitative evaluations if we are to understand if EE is actually meeting its stated goals. The current study evaluated long-term impacts of the Prairie Science Class (PSC), a formal EE partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and an independent school district. This study analyzed both quantitative and qualitative data to investigate outcome durability of the PSC, as well as the impact of the PSC on the connection to nature, a construct thought to be a predictor of future environmental behavior.