- Email: [email protected]
Integrating science education and marine conservation through collaborative partnerships
Marine Pollution Bulletin xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Marine Pollution Bulletin journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpolbul
Correspondence
Integrating science education and marine conservation through collaborative partnerships Jeannie Miller Martin ⇑, Katie Higgins, Kristin Lee, Kira Stearns, Lori Hunt Georgia Sea Turtle Center, 214 Stable Road, Jekyll Island, GA 31527, USA
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Available online xxxx Keywords: Environmental education Marine debris Sea turtle conservation
a b s t r a c t The Georgia Sea Turtle Center has a mission of conservation based rehabilitation, research, and education. Marine debris is a serious threat to marine species. In an effort to educate local students, the GSTC obtained a grant to provide educational opportunities to local third graders. Third and fourth grade classes in Glynn County, Georgia were offered a Garbage in the Water program and 964 students were reached. After programming, students showed a statistically significant (p < .0001) increase in test scores between the pre and posttests. This success led to repeat funding for additional programming for first grades as well as a formalized relationship with the Glynn County School District. As part of this relationship the Georgia Sea Turtle Center is now the official field trip location for all third grades in the district. Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Positive interactions with the natural world are important components of healthy development in children (Wilson, 1996). Environmental education also plays a critical role in developing positive attitudes about the environment, which in turn increases an individual’s perceived value of the places, plants, and animals around them (Schultz, 2001). Successful environmental education does not stop with just teachers and children; it also requires community leaders and organizations working alongside the students and teachers in order to effectively resolve challenges facing the local and global environment (Davis, 1998). Opened in 2007 the Georgia Sea Turtle Center (GSTC) is a full service sea turtle rehabilitation, research and education facility on the Georgia coast. The GSTC prides itself on being a premiere educational facility that uses sea turtles as a flagship species for the entire oceanic ecosystem. One core part of the education department is developing innovative programs that focus on exposing children, teens, and adults to the environment and conservation in a positive dynamic way. The GSTC offers 38 different environmental education programs (T. Norton, personal communication, September 15, 2012) that are designed for all ages and experience levels. Marine debris is a serious threat to sea turtles and other marine life. Laist’s (1997) work has shown that marine debris is affecting at least 267 species worldwide. This includes 86% of all sea turtle ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 912 635 4173; fax: +1 912 717 6454.
species, 44% of all seabird species, and 43% of all marine mammal species (Laist, 1997). The GSTC has had multiple patients that were brought to the center due to interactions with marine debris. Because of this, the staff of the GSTC created the grant funded Georgia Sea Turtle Center-Marine Debris Initiative (GSTC-MDI) in an effort to further educate children and the public about the threats of marine debris, in addition to taking action to remove debris from the beaches of Jekyll Island, GA. The educational component of the program teaches children about sea turtle natural history through a classroom program and about marine debris threats through the Garbage in the Water program. The Garbage in the Water program is part of the GSTC’s core Georgia state standards based curriculum (standards S3L1-d, S3L2-a,b) offered as a field trip opportunity or an outreach event. Designed by GSTC staff, this program was created to teach students different sources and types of pollution and how those materials can impact the lives of species that may interact with it. Like all GSTC programs, it also includes an interactive activity during the lesson as well as a component overviewing how students and their families can become further engaged. The Glynn County School District, like many throughout the nation, is a district of high diversity and limited resources. Of 12,780 students enrolled in 2014 the demographic of Glynn County schools was: 49% White, 36% African American, 10% Hispanic, 4% multiracial, 2% Asian/Pacific Islander, and less than 1% American Indian/Alaska Native. Additionally 64% of students, were considered economically disadvantaged and 12% were identified as students with disabilities (Mann, 2014).
E-mail address: [email protected] (J.M. Martin). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.04.009 0025-326X/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article in press as: Martin, J.M., et al. Integrating science education and marine conservation through collaborative partnerships. Mar. Pollut. Bull. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.04.009
2
J.M. Martin et al. / Marine Pollution Bulletin xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
A major challenge to implementing meaningful conservation education in schools throughout the country, including schools in Glynn County, is acquiring the necessary funding to provide students with immersive experiences beyond required curriculum. This funding challenge is especially true in the schools of Glynn County. The economy of Glynn County was hit tremendously hard by the recent economic recession with budgets losing $48 million in revenues since 2003 and an additional $12 million in revenue due to new legislation implemented in 2010 exempting seniors, or those with a net income less than $40,000, from paying taxes that previously supported the school systems. These budget reductions led to drastic reductions in both positions and programming, resulting in a loss of 125 teachers and numerous extracurricular activities (Mann, 2014). During periods of decreased funding schools, naturally, are forced to focus resources on meeting state and national performance standards. Many times this proves challenging to include conservation related lessons into daily lessons. This is a clear example of what is known as ‘‘narrowing the curriculum’’ and focusing only on what is going to be on the standardized tests that the teachers are ultimately evaluated on, and marginalizing other content areas (Cheng, 2012). While conservation education can be innovatively worked into lessons on required topics, this is not frequently done. The primary reason is because teachers, especially those at the elementary level, are uncomfortable with the materials and have the belief that science is rigid, difficult to teach, and not easily done (Brewer, 2002). Having a conservation facility in the community that can collaborate with the school system to provide educational programming that both meets required state and national standards and engages school children in conservation is an enormous asset to the district and incredible benefit to the students. Both entities working together to find ways to do so that is both cost effective and mutually beneficial is precisely what the relationship Davis was referencing as required to have successful environmental education. Since the inception of the GSTC, it has been working with the school district of Glynn County, Georgia to create this type of partnership.
Fig. 1. Garbage in the water testing results: Pre and posttests from 880 third and fourth grade students in Glynn county, GA showed a significant increase (p < .0001) in test scores after receiving the state standards based Garbage in the Water from Georgia Sea Turtle Center staff.
were isolated by school, all schools also had an extremely significant difference between pre and post test scores with all schools except Burroughs Mollette having a p-value of <.00001, Burroughs Mollette had a p-value of <0.0005. The school with the greatest increase in test scores was St. Simons Island Elementary school with students having an increase in test scores by 17%. The school with the lowest increase in test scores was Satilla Marsh Elementary with students having an increase in test score by 8%. Formal evaluation and feedback was not solicited from teachers during the course of the project. However, several teachers reached out and provided positive feedback to the staff on both the educational program itself and the presentation techniques utilized in class. 4. Discussion/conclusion
2. Methods The GSTC-MDI was created after receiving funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Southeast Atlantic Marine Debris Initiative (SEA-MDI). The principals at twelve Glynn County Schools were contacted, offering their third grade classes the opportunity to participate, at no cost to the school, in the educational portion of the program during the 2012–2013 school year. Ten of the twelve schools participated, two of which requested fourth grade receive programming as well, for a total of 48 third and fourth grade classes containing 964 students. Participation included GSTC staff visiting the school and performing a 30 min Garbage in the Water program, including a pre and posttest assessing student knowledge of sea turtles and marine debris threats. Only students that completed both the pre and posttest were included in data analysis (880 students). Once data was sorted and incomplete test sets removed, a paired t-test was completed to determine if the difference between pre and post test scores were significant. All testing was done onsite in the students’ classroom. 3. Results Students exhibited an extremely statistically significant increase in scores between the pre and post test, as illustrated by a paired t-test (p < .0001) (Fig. 1). The average pretest score was 66% with the average post test score being 78%. When the results
This project showed that attending the Garbage in the Water program was effective at increasing students’ knowledge about sea turtles and the threats of marine debris. While there was a statistically significant increase for all schools, the post test grades were not as high as originally expected. There could be several reasons for this. One may be that this information was presented on one occasion and there was little repetition to reinforce the learning point. Dimopoulos et al. (2008) report that exposure as short as two hours can have an impact, but that exposure of 1–5 days produced significantly greater gains in knowledge. Students participated in the program on a one time basis only and if they had multiple visits from the center or if conservation units were in place the scores may have been higher. The Center intends to continue building their relationship with the schools so that students can be exposed to these topics multiple times throughout the school year which should lead to a greater impact. The most important outcome from this project however, was the formalization of the relationship between the GSTC and the Glynn County School District. Due to the fact that the Garbage in the Water curriculum fulfilled the required standards so thoroughly, at the conclusion of this project, the School District decided to make the GSTC the official field trip destination for all of its third grade classes. This is clearly a victory not only for the schools and teachers as they will have the unique opportunity to receive high caliber science and conservation education in an engaging and immersive atmosphere, but also for the center and the marine ecosystem itself. It is well established that science and
Please cite this article in press as: Martin, J.M., et al. Integrating science education and marine conservation through collaborative partnerships. Mar. Pollut. Bull. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.04.009
J.M. Martin et al. / Marine Pollution Bulletin xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
environmental education plays a key role in developing understanding of environmental issues and in turn, leads to pro-environmental behavior (Littledyke, 2008). Educating youth is critical for the success of ecosystems and this will provide the center with the opportunity to spread awareness and cultivate a new generation of environmental stewards. Additionally, as a result of the success of this program, the GSTC received a second grant to replicate this project with their program ‘‘Scute’s Ocean Adventure’’ and the first grade classes of Glynn County, GA as well as start development of the ‘‘Scute Approved’’ conservation literacy program that once fully developed will be able to be shared with formal and informal educators. This second opportunity to provide education to students on the Georgia coast will continue to strengthen the relationship between the center and schools as well as inspire local children to make a difference in their communities. Acknowledgments This project could not be completed without the assistance of many collaborators: the staff, members, and volunteers of the GSTC and Jekyll Island Authority for making many aspects of this Project possible. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and University of Georgia for grant funding to
3
make the program possible and Glynn County third and fourth grade students and teachers for participating in the educational programs. References Brewer, C., 2002. Conservation education partnerships in schoolyard laboratories: a callback to action. Conserv. Biol. 16 (3), 577–579. Cheng, A., 2012. Teacher perceptions of the common core state standards. Online Submission to ed.gov. Retrieved from. Davis, J., 1998. Young children, environmental education, and the future. Early Childhood Ed. J. 26 (2), 177-123. Dimopoulos, D., Paraskevopoulos, Stefanos, Pantis, J.D., 2008. The cognitive and attitudinal effects of a conservation education module on elementary school students. J. Environ. Ed. 39 (3). Laist, D.W., 1997. Impacts of marine debris: entanglement of marine life in marine debris including a comprehensive list of species with entanglement and ingestion records. In: Coe, J.M., Rogers, D.B. (Eds.), Marine Debris: Sources, Impacts and Solutions. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 99–139. Littledyke, M., 2008. Science education for environmental awareness: approaches to integrating cognitive and affective domains. Environ. Ed. Res. 14 (1), 1–17. Mann, H.S., 2014. Glynn county school system executive summary. AdvaceED. 1-7. Retrieved from . Schultz, W., 2001. The structure of environmental concern: concern for self, other people, and the biosphere. J. Environ. Psychol. 21, 327–339. Wilson, R.A., 1996. Starting early: environmental education during the early childhood years. ERIC Digest ED402147 ERIC Clearinghouse for Science Mathematics and Environmental Education, Columbus, OH.
Please cite this article in press as: Martin, J.M., et al. Integrating science education and marine conservation through collaborative partnerships. Mar. Pollut. Bull. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.04.009
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Marine Pollution Bulletin journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpolbul
Correspondence
Integrating science education and marine conservation through collaborative partnerships Jeannie Miller Martin ⇑, Katie Higgins, Kristin Lee, Kira Stearns, Lori Hunt Georgia Sea Turtle Center, 214 Stable Road, Jekyll Island, GA 31527, USA
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Available online xxxx Keywords: Environmental education Marine debris Sea turtle conservation
a b s t r a c t The Georgia Sea Turtle Center has a mission of conservation based rehabilitation, research, and education. Marine debris is a serious threat to marine species. In an effort to educate local students, the GSTC obtained a grant to provide educational opportunities to local third graders. Third and fourth grade classes in Glynn County, Georgia were offered a Garbage in the Water program and 964 students were reached. After programming, students showed a statistically significant (p < .0001) increase in test scores between the pre and posttests. This success led to repeat funding for additional programming for first grades as well as a formalized relationship with the Glynn County School District. As part of this relationship the Georgia Sea Turtle Center is now the official field trip location for all third grades in the district. Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Positive interactions with the natural world are important components of healthy development in children (Wilson, 1996). Environmental education also plays a critical role in developing positive attitudes about the environment, which in turn increases an individual’s perceived value of the places, plants, and animals around them (Schultz, 2001). Successful environmental education does not stop with just teachers and children; it also requires community leaders and organizations working alongside the students and teachers in order to effectively resolve challenges facing the local and global environment (Davis, 1998). Opened in 2007 the Georgia Sea Turtle Center (GSTC) is a full service sea turtle rehabilitation, research and education facility on the Georgia coast. The GSTC prides itself on being a premiere educational facility that uses sea turtles as a flagship species for the entire oceanic ecosystem. One core part of the education department is developing innovative programs that focus on exposing children, teens, and adults to the environment and conservation in a positive dynamic way. The GSTC offers 38 different environmental education programs (T. Norton, personal communication, September 15, 2012) that are designed for all ages and experience levels. Marine debris is a serious threat to sea turtles and other marine life. Laist’s (1997) work has shown that marine debris is affecting at least 267 species worldwide. This includes 86% of all sea turtle ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 912 635 4173; fax: +1 912 717 6454.
species, 44% of all seabird species, and 43% of all marine mammal species (Laist, 1997). The GSTC has had multiple patients that were brought to the center due to interactions with marine debris. Because of this, the staff of the GSTC created the grant funded Georgia Sea Turtle Center-Marine Debris Initiative (GSTC-MDI) in an effort to further educate children and the public about the threats of marine debris, in addition to taking action to remove debris from the beaches of Jekyll Island, GA. The educational component of the program teaches children about sea turtle natural history through a classroom program and about marine debris threats through the Garbage in the Water program. The Garbage in the Water program is part of the GSTC’s core Georgia state standards based curriculum (standards S3L1-d, S3L2-a,b) offered as a field trip opportunity or an outreach event. Designed by GSTC staff, this program was created to teach students different sources and types of pollution and how those materials can impact the lives of species that may interact with it. Like all GSTC programs, it also includes an interactive activity during the lesson as well as a component overviewing how students and their families can become further engaged. The Glynn County School District, like many throughout the nation, is a district of high diversity and limited resources. Of 12,780 students enrolled in 2014 the demographic of Glynn County schools was: 49% White, 36% African American, 10% Hispanic, 4% multiracial, 2% Asian/Pacific Islander, and less than 1% American Indian/Alaska Native. Additionally 64% of students, were considered economically disadvantaged and 12% were identified as students with disabilities (Mann, 2014).
E-mail address: [email protected] (J.M. Martin). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.04.009 0025-326X/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article in press as: Martin, J.M., et al. Integrating science education and marine conservation through collaborative partnerships. Mar. Pollut. Bull. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.04.009
2
J.M. Martin et al. / Marine Pollution Bulletin xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
A major challenge to implementing meaningful conservation education in schools throughout the country, including schools in Glynn County, is acquiring the necessary funding to provide students with immersive experiences beyond required curriculum. This funding challenge is especially true in the schools of Glynn County. The economy of Glynn County was hit tremendously hard by the recent economic recession with budgets losing $48 million in revenues since 2003 and an additional $12 million in revenue due to new legislation implemented in 2010 exempting seniors, or those with a net income less than $40,000, from paying taxes that previously supported the school systems. These budget reductions led to drastic reductions in both positions and programming, resulting in a loss of 125 teachers and numerous extracurricular activities (Mann, 2014). During periods of decreased funding schools, naturally, are forced to focus resources on meeting state and national performance standards. Many times this proves challenging to include conservation related lessons into daily lessons. This is a clear example of what is known as ‘‘narrowing the curriculum’’ and focusing only on what is going to be on the standardized tests that the teachers are ultimately evaluated on, and marginalizing other content areas (Cheng, 2012). While conservation education can be innovatively worked into lessons on required topics, this is not frequently done. The primary reason is because teachers, especially those at the elementary level, are uncomfortable with the materials and have the belief that science is rigid, difficult to teach, and not easily done (Brewer, 2002). Having a conservation facility in the community that can collaborate with the school system to provide educational programming that both meets required state and national standards and engages school children in conservation is an enormous asset to the district and incredible benefit to the students. Both entities working together to find ways to do so that is both cost effective and mutually beneficial is precisely what the relationship Davis was referencing as required to have successful environmental education. Since the inception of the GSTC, it has been working with the school district of Glynn County, Georgia to create this type of partnership.
Fig. 1. Garbage in the water testing results: Pre and posttests from 880 third and fourth grade students in Glynn county, GA showed a significant increase (p < .0001) in test scores after receiving the state standards based Garbage in the Water from Georgia Sea Turtle Center staff.
were isolated by school, all schools also had an extremely significant difference between pre and post test scores with all schools except Burroughs Mollette having a p-value of <.00001, Burroughs Mollette had a p-value of <0.0005. The school with the greatest increase in test scores was St. Simons Island Elementary school with students having an increase in test scores by 17%. The school with the lowest increase in test scores was Satilla Marsh Elementary with students having an increase in test score by 8%. Formal evaluation and feedback was not solicited from teachers during the course of the project. However, several teachers reached out and provided positive feedback to the staff on both the educational program itself and the presentation techniques utilized in class. 4. Discussion/conclusion
2. Methods The GSTC-MDI was created after receiving funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Southeast Atlantic Marine Debris Initiative (SEA-MDI). The principals at twelve Glynn County Schools were contacted, offering their third grade classes the opportunity to participate, at no cost to the school, in the educational portion of the program during the 2012–2013 school year. Ten of the twelve schools participated, two of which requested fourth grade receive programming as well, for a total of 48 third and fourth grade classes containing 964 students. Participation included GSTC staff visiting the school and performing a 30 min Garbage in the Water program, including a pre and posttest assessing student knowledge of sea turtles and marine debris threats. Only students that completed both the pre and posttest were included in data analysis (880 students). Once data was sorted and incomplete test sets removed, a paired t-test was completed to determine if the difference between pre and post test scores were significant. All testing was done onsite in the students’ classroom. 3. Results Students exhibited an extremely statistically significant increase in scores between the pre and post test, as illustrated by a paired t-test (p < .0001) (Fig. 1). The average pretest score was 66% with the average post test score being 78%. When the results
This project showed that attending the Garbage in the Water program was effective at increasing students’ knowledge about sea turtles and the threats of marine debris. While there was a statistically significant increase for all schools, the post test grades were not as high as originally expected. There could be several reasons for this. One may be that this information was presented on one occasion and there was little repetition to reinforce the learning point. Dimopoulos et al. (2008) report that exposure as short as two hours can have an impact, but that exposure of 1–5 days produced significantly greater gains in knowledge. Students participated in the program on a one time basis only and if they had multiple visits from the center or if conservation units were in place the scores may have been higher. The Center intends to continue building their relationship with the schools so that students can be exposed to these topics multiple times throughout the school year which should lead to a greater impact. The most important outcome from this project however, was the formalization of the relationship between the GSTC and the Glynn County School District. Due to the fact that the Garbage in the Water curriculum fulfilled the required standards so thoroughly, at the conclusion of this project, the School District decided to make the GSTC the official field trip destination for all of its third grade classes. This is clearly a victory not only for the schools and teachers as they will have the unique opportunity to receive high caliber science and conservation education in an engaging and immersive atmosphere, but also for the center and the marine ecosystem itself. It is well established that science and
Please cite this article in press as: Martin, J.M., et al. Integrating science education and marine conservation through collaborative partnerships. Mar. Pollut. Bull. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.04.009
J.M. Martin et al. / Marine Pollution Bulletin xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
environmental education plays a key role in developing understanding of environmental issues and in turn, leads to pro-environmental behavior (Littledyke, 2008). Educating youth is critical for the success of ecosystems and this will provide the center with the opportunity to spread awareness and cultivate a new generation of environmental stewards. Additionally, as a result of the success of this program, the GSTC received a second grant to replicate this project with their program ‘‘Scute’s Ocean Adventure’’ and the first grade classes of Glynn County, GA as well as start development of the ‘‘Scute Approved’’ conservation literacy program that once fully developed will be able to be shared with formal and informal educators. This second opportunity to provide education to students on the Georgia coast will continue to strengthen the relationship between the center and schools as well as inspire local children to make a difference in their communities. Acknowledgments This project could not be completed without the assistance of many collaborators: the staff, members, and volunteers of the GSTC and Jekyll Island Authority for making many aspects of this Project possible. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and University of Georgia for grant funding to
3
make the program possible and Glynn County third and fourth grade students and teachers for participating in the educational programs. References Brewer, C., 2002. Conservation education partnerships in schoolyard laboratories: a callback to action. Conserv. Biol. 16 (3), 577–579. Cheng, A., 2012. Teacher perceptions of the common core state standards. Online Submission to ed.gov. Retrieved from
Please cite this article in press as: Martin, J.M., et al. Integrating science education and marine conservation through collaborative partnerships. Mar. Pollut. Bull. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.04.009