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…

The near-term social-emotional and academic benefits of arts-based field trips has been well documented, but a new study shows that multiple arts-based field trips can have positive effects that endure for multiple years. Laura Florick, Jay P. Greene, Rebecca Levenberg, and Rebecca Pogue describe a partnership between a school district and arts…

Forty-one pre-service elementary teachers (PSETs) enrolled in a science methods course participated in a service-learning project on energy and sustainability. The goal was to help PSETs and elementary students to understand concepts regarding energy, energy saving, and sustainability through an oncampus Family Energy Day event for 65 elementary…

We investigated how pupils experience education outside the classroom (EOtC) as it relates to their social and academic well-being. A Danish 6th grade class were taught twice a week for nine months using EOtC. We sampled five academically low- and five high-achieving pupils from the class and conducted qualitative observations and interviews with…

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…

University-based Extension specialists often face the dilemma of scheduling time for both teaching and outreach activities. Service learning projects that give hands-on experience in the application of classroom activities while giving back to the community can bridge this gap. A demonstration forest and service learning techniques were used to…