Outcomes of art-based environmental education in the Hudson River Watershed
An arts-based environmental education program increases students’ environmental knowledge and provides an avenue for advocacy
Growing interest in expanding STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) to STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Art and Math) reflects an understanding of the value of the arts to teaching and learning. This understanding led to the development, implementation, and evaluation of a place-based experiential environmental education (EE) curriculum. The curriculum was designed to teach fifth and sixth students about the Hudson River Watershed, environmental issues, and ecosystem recovery. The environmental art components of the curriculum included sculpture, drawing, and muralism. The aim of the evaluation component of the project was to gain a better understanding of “the multiplicity of outcomes of art-based EE in relation to changes in environmental knowledge and attitudes of a sample of primary school students.”
Fifth- and sixth-grader students from two private schools in upstate New York participated in the study. A group of 14 students from one of the schools served as the “treatment group”. Fourteen students from the other school served as a “control group.” The treatment group participated in indoor and outdoor watershed lessons and related environmental art activities over a period of nine weeks. Both groups of students completed the same assessments before and after the treatment period. The treatment group, seven parents of students in the treatment group, and the school teacher participated in focus group discussions or interviews at the end of the project.
Post-test results showed that students in the treatment group made statistically significant gains in environmental knowledge over the nine-week period. Their environmental attitude scores also improved, but not significantly. This lack of significant change may reflect more positive environmental attitudes prior to the treatment, most likely due to the strong environmental ethos present in the school and/or homes of the students. Student, parent, and teacher focus group or interview responses indicated that the art activities helped the students gain a better understanding of how humans can affect the watershed. The students were hopeful that the mural they helped to create would raise awareness and stimulate action for watershed protection.
“This research adds to the handful of empirical research that evaluates the outcomes of incorporating environmental art into a suite of place-based experiential education pedagogies.”
Citation
Schneller, A. J., Harrison, L. M., Adelman, J., Post, S., (2021). Outcomes of art-based environmental education in the Hudson River Watershed. Applied Environmental Education and Communication, 20(1),
