In this article, I examine the effects of an environmental sociology travel study program in Zion National Park (United States) on 11 students during the summers of 2018 and 2019. I outline the program, and then I use students' reflections in their posttrip final papers to illustrate the effects of the program on their sense of environmental…

This study seeks to add to our understanding of preschool students' experiences in urban spaces. Very few studies, including educational research, have directly addressed what urban nature spaces, specifically urban parks, mean to young children and even fewer have focused on children's own perception. The study presented here was conducted with…

Visitation to some of the most popular national parks in the United States has surged in recent years, but in many national park units, attendance has declined even as the U.S. population increases. Changing demographics, patterns of visitation, maintenance needs, and inconsistent federal support raise questions about national parks' relevance to…

This study investigates eight college students' perceptions of their experiences during an accredited outdoor education course entitled Technical Canyoneering. The course took place in four separate desert canyons of the Colorado Plateau, two in Arches National Park, and two on nearby Bureau of Land Management public space. Utilizing the data…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the relationship between natural landscapes and inspiration through the lens of topophilia--the affinity people have for certain places or landscape features. Participants were students on a traveling college field course called American Ecosystems. The 2015 course (n=15, 26 days) visited 19…

Successful buy-in and support for management of Marine Protected Areas (MPA) should acknowledge the existing cultural ecosystem services and their connections to the well-being of local communities to gain positive perceptions. It is necessary to engage local stakeholders, especially among the youths, to explore governance complexities of MPAs and…

An increasing body of evidence highlights that the opportunities for children to play in green spaces have declined. This is despite the chorus of voices lauding the benefits that time spent in green spaces can have on children's health and wellbeing. This paper presents findings of research into the experiences of children when taking part in…

This study aimed to investigate undergraduates' perspectives of online syllabus design and interactivity in an asynchronous geoscience course. The study was grounded in previous research on syllabus design and interactivity and used a multiple case study design to gather data from five participants. The course had multiple sections, each with a…

From a tradition of fieldwork-based teaching in geography, we consider the intersections of fieldwork sites and their social and spatial relationships for implications for non-placement work integrated learning (NPWIL). As the skills agenda gathers pace in universities it is critical to understand forms of NPWIL and their development. As a form of…

Lately, theme parks have emphasized the learning and edutainment aspects of their business. This has created new opportunities for theme parks and schools to cooperate. Research has shown that learning at science centers, a similar form of learning arena, tends to be out of context and that the learning outcomes are meager. High Chaparral, in…

In this study, it was aimed to determine prospective social studies and elementary education teachers' attitudes towards national parks and views on ecology-based environmental education. In this study, which was conducted following the stated purpose, an educational practice was carried out in Termessos National Park (Antalya) for two days in…

College students report using negative or non-effective behaviors to cope with personal, social, and academic stress that differ from mental health professional recommendations to meditate, exercise, and journal. Although the benefits of active and passive interactions with nature to reduce stress have been extensively documented, green spaces are…

Do more natural settings improve students' learning? We collected surveys immediately following 283 U.S.-based environmental education (EE) field trip programs for youth and used land cover data to examine the relationship between levels of naturalness, defined as the percentage of natural land cover of the EE field trip site, and student learning…

This article analyzes the knowledge and attitudes of high school students regarding the temperate mountain forest of La Malinche National Park, Tlaxcala, Mexico, before and after the implementation of the science communication program called "Los Tesoros de La Malinche" (The Treasures of La Malinche). The assessment included drawings,…

This investigation examined how a 6 week environmental topics course that included place-based socioscientific issues (SSI) instruction in the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA) in the United States of America influenced 21 postsecondary students' expressed socioscientific orientations of "Ecological Worldviews" (including…