The Effects of Geographic Affiliation on Students' Perceptions, Awareness, and Responses to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

ABSTRACT

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill greatly affected the Gulf Coast, and the news media reported information to wide audiences. Students enrolled in an online Environmental Geoscience course in fall 2010 voluntarily participated in a Gulf oil spill survey. More than 92% of the students (N = 77; 83 total enrollment), who were primarily in-service teachers, participated. The 24-question survey probed students' demographics, current geographic locations, affinity with the Gulf, oil spill knowledge, and emotions resulting from the incident. We sought to determine whether students with Gulf Coast geographic affinity (one aspect of Gulf sense of place) would have stronger reactions, have greater knowledge, and exhibit more behavioral changes than their noncoast peers. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed students with a geographic association with the Gulf Coast had stronger interest and emotional responses than did noncoast students. However, students with a Gulf affiliation did not score statistically higher on their knowledge of the spill, exhibit significantly different behavioral changes, or have stronger plans to incorporate the spill within their K–12 classrooms. Student age had no significant effect on any category. We concluded that current events that tap into students' affiliations and senses of place may offer affective portals through which instruction can be optimized, but more research is needed to elucidate media effects and competing variables.

Key words::

• Gulf oil spill
• online education
• distance learning
• Deepwater Horizon
• sense of place

FIGURE 1: The U.S. Coast Guard responded to the fire on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. Despite firefighting efforts, the rig sank 2 d after the initial explosion. (Photograph courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard.)

FIGURE 2: The oil slick produced by the Deepwater Horizon incident is seen here on 24 May 2010. (Image courtesy of Michon Scott, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Earth Observatory.)

FIGURE 3: Geographic locations of student responders (N = 77) to the Gulf Oil Spill Survey are plotted for anonymous student numbers by postal zip codes.

FIGURE 4: Students' level of concern for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and other environmental issues is plotted against geographic location. Upon initial perusal, there appeared to be no correlation between geographic location and level of interest.

TABLE I: Two-way MANOVA revealed that students' association with the Gulf Coast as a “home” region was significant in the students' interest level to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Student age categories, however, were not significantly linked to interest level.