Abstract
Many barriers restrict children’s access to nature resulting in negative consequences, including a lack of opportunities to learn and engage with the natural environment. Fortunately, environmental education programs offer participants an opportunity to counteract these challenges. While the benefits of environmental education as measured by pre-determined outcomes are well documented, research focused on participants’ perceptions and preferences related to their environmental learning experiences continues to be under-represented in the literature. Using a pre-/post-test survey approach, this study aimed to explore how an earth education summer camp, Sunship Earth TM, contributed to participants environmental learning experiences. Results suggest that Sunship Earth TM provides children with various EL opportunities that help to increase their understanding of some ecological concepts. Results also suggest that this learning experience may have helped to broaden participants’ understanding of environmental issues and actions, as well as enhance feelings of care, interest, and responsibility towards the environment.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Dr. Kate Sherren who provided feedback on initial project development and provided feedback for the manuscript. Finally, thank you to Simon Greenland-Smith who provided assistance with statistical analysis.
Disclosure statement
The authors report no conflict of interest or financial interests in the presentation of this research.