Assessing the contributions of green building practices to ecological literacy in the elementary classroom: an exploratory study

Abstract

Ecological literacy in the elementary classroom typically focuses on abiotic and biotic relationships, without including how human activity and ecosystems interrelate. A possible way for students to make these connections is through their school building. To that end, we examined ecological literacy outcomes for 5th-grade students in two classrooms, one classroom was a green classroom and the other was non-green. This study was exploratory with no curricular intervention. Results indicated that students’ overall ecological literacy did not grow across the school year; however, students did use their physical classrooms to make human-ecosystem connections. While students were aware of ecological impacts of the two classrooms, they described these impacts differently. Students in the green classroom conveyed a positive human-ecosystem impact relationship while students in the other classroom used more negative tones. Implications suggest that students do use their building to make human-ecosystem connections, but require curriculum to further support their ideas.

Keywords:

• Ecological literacy
• green building practices
• elementary classroom
• built environment

Acknowledgement

We thank the Research, Graduate Studies, and Economic Development University of Missouri Research Council URC-16-053 College of Human and Environmental Sciences University of Missouri, and the National Institute for Food and Agriculture This research was supported by the Office of Research, Graduate Studies, and Economic Development University of Missouri Research Council Grant URC-16-053, the Margaret Mangel Award at the College of Human and Environmental Sciences University of Missouri, and the National Institute for Food and Agriculture.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Office of Research, Graduate Studies, and Economic Development University of Missouri Research Council Grant URC-16-053, the Margaret Mangel Award at the College of Human and Environmental Sciences University of Missouri, and the National Institute for Food and Agriculture. We appreciate the interest and participation of the teacher and students who made this work possible. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Laura Zangori, Department of Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum, College of Education, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO Email: [email protected]