ERIC Number: EJ1436215
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Dec
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0814-0626
EISSN: EISSN-2049-775X
Students' Attitudes towards the Environment and Marine Litter in the Context of a Coastal Water Quality Educational Citizen Science Project
Australian Journal of Environmental Education, v39 n4 p522-535 2023
This research focuses on the evaluation of the impact on students' attitudes towards the environment, fostered by their involvement in an educational citizen science project related to the monitoring of physicochemical properties and the detection of (micro)plastics in Portuguese coastal waters. We developed an attitude scale, comprising four dimensions (Collective, Personal, Recycling and Reuse and Microplastics), which was applied, as a pre-test and post-test, to 574 middle school students (aged 12-14): 442 in the experimental group and 132 in the control group. Initially, based on pre-test results, both groups revealed positive attitudes. In the experimental group, the post-test results revealed that significantly positive attitude changes were promoted in all dimensions, whereas, in the control group, this occurred only in the Personal dimension. The control group also exhibited significantly negative attitude changes in the collective dimension. Students' engagement in sustainability-related citizen science projects can enhance environmentally literate society.
Descriptors: Student Attitudes, Water Pollution, Water Quality, Citizenship, Science Education, Student Projects, Evaluation, Foreign Countries, Pretests Posttests, Middle School Students, Elementary School Science, Student Participation, Sustainability, Environmental Education, Conservation (Environment)
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education; Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Portugal
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A