The needs of the digital revolution and the knowledge-based economy impose a transformation of traditional education to improve technical and scientific knowledge and include alternative abilities. This work presents a service-learning initiative with multiple goals: to improve scientific, technical, engineering, and mathematic (STEM) knowledge at…

Purpose: This study aims to introduce a new instrument to assess the perception of the university community after the Climate Emergency Declaration (CED) and its application at the Universidad de Salamanca (USAL) in Spain. This CED includes a comprehensive program to reduce the carbon footprint and the introduction of the education for sustainable…

Socio-scientific issues demonstrate the relationship between science, technology, and society by considering currently unresolved questions. The problem of plastics and their pollution is just one example with important implications for the planet. The aim of this paper is to revisit socio-scientific issues and see them as a way of developing…

The Council of the European Union recalls that higher education plays a fundamental role in shaping the future of Europe. Therefore, curricula are required to take into account the competences demanded by the job market so that future workers can effectively undertake their professional activities and form part of an active, responsible,…

The students' engagement was deemed significant to research due to the changing study structures from course-based to student-centered and competence-based in sustainable science higher education. Still, its change and coping strategies is considered as somewhat unfamiliar learning environment. Research examined students' engagement to the…

This work presents the evaluation of a practical experience on noise pollution based on the use of smartphones to check if it helps students to better understand the concepts related to this phenomenon. This evaluation has been done with a pre-post design in which 112 students, enrolled in the "Physics and Chemistry" course of the 1st…

Problems associated with the environment loom large over the future well-being of young generations. A previous issue of PISA in Focus (PISA in Focus 87) shows that in 2015 many 15-year-old students believed that the future -- their future -- was going to be worse, environmentally, than the present. In particular, only a minority of students…

Light pollution has emerged with the industrial development in recent decades. It is becoming a significant environmental issue for cities today and it will probably become more important in the near future. However, very little research has been carried out on this issue in the field of science teaching, despite there being a general agreement…

Pollution phenomena are complex systems in which different parts are integrated by means of causal and temporal relationships. To understand pollution, children must develop some cognitive abilities related to system thinking and temporal and causal inferential reasoning. These cognitive abilities constrain and guide how children understand…

This paper explores the relationship between air pollution, climate and reported subjective well-being (or happiness) in Spanish regions. The results show that, after controlling for most of the socio-economic variables affecting happiness, there are still significant regional differences in subjective well-being. Evidence also suggests that…

Environmental education has been included in the school curricula of many countries in the last 15 years. Implementation has been not as successful as expected due to various constraints reported in several research projects. Its achievement remains uncertain and more research is required in all areas of education. In order to propose a curriculum…

This paper is part of an extensive study of secondary school students' preconceived ideas about climate change. Here, we undertake a survey in the province of Valencia (Spain) to ascertain secondary school students' notions of the causes and consequences of climate change. Results show, among other things, that students clearly relate the misuse…

Research in environmental attitudes' assessment has significantly increased in recent years. The development of specific attitude scales for specific environmental problems has often been proposed. This paper describes the Groundwater Pollution Test (GPT), a 19-item survey instrument using a Likert-type scale. The survey has been used with…

In this study, Spanish and US secondary science teacher data is used to address the relationship between what science teachers teach and the science and technology based environmental problems/threats faced by the world. The results of a two part questionnaire indicated that teachers of both countries are worried about the problem of pollution of…

We present a laboratory practice aimed to clarify and discuss the concept of bioindicator molecules in environmental health. It has been implemented as a hands-on laboratory exercise in postgraduate courses in public health (in Brazil) and in a course entitled Biology Applied to Natural Resources Sustainability (in Spain) but can be useful for…