There is increasing educational interest in immersive virtual reality (IVR) applications which aid student learning and performance. However, few empirical studies have investigated the potential for implementing the technology in middle-school social studies classrooms. This study employed a quasi-experimental approach to address this issue,…

Political polarization in the United States has made many environmental issues strongly partisan, with Democrats largely receptive to environmental messaging and Republicans commonly pitted against it. This phenomenon may have meaningful implications for how environmental education is conducted for people from different sociopolitical contexts. We…

In the United States, the two main political parties, Democrats and Republicans, have become increasingly polarized, including with regard to environmental issues. As part of a national study of environmentally focused single-day field trips for early adolescent youth in 2018, we conducted exploratory research to examine how outcomes differed for…

As societies search for ways to deal with increasing environmental issues due to human impacts, the urgency increases for public schools to produce graduates who are environmentally literate and thus equipped to deal with the environmental issues that will face upcoming generations. This research presents a case study that examines the impact of a…

Many studies have shown a decrease in scientific interest with an increase in age. Since interest is linked to a high degree of deep-level learning, it is of great relevance to foster interest in science. This study investigates interest in biology from 7th, 9th, and 12th grade students in Germany (N=257). Results show a significantly lower…

While multiple valid measures exist for assessing outcomes of environmental education (EE) programs, the field lacks a comprehensive and logistically feasible common instrument that can apply across diverse programs. We describe a participatory effort for identifying and developing crosscutting outcomes for Environmental Education in the…

Too many talented students who go to under-resourced schools do not achieve their full potential. Though they may perform very well relative to their classmates, these students do not receive the same kinds of academically challenging opportunities throughout their educational journey as do their counterparts in better-resourced public and private…

This study examined the mental models of the desert environment held by fourth- and seventh-grade students in the USA and whether those mental models could be affected by: (1) classroom field trips to a desert riparian preserve, and (2) interaction with family members at the same preserve. Results generally indicated that students in this study…

The authors measured the impact of adding pre- and posttrip in-class activities to the residential environmental education program at the New Jersey School of Conservation (NJSOC). Seventh-grade students (N = 169) from a suburban, northern New Jersey school district participated in a 3-day, 2-night experience. The Environmental Adaptation,…