Prescott College. Environmental Studies.

Phenological monitoring by elementary students has been found to enhance science literacy among English language learners, and will benefit the parks research efforts as scientists strive to understand global climate change impacts on park resources and the community. The "Kids in Nature" phenological monitoring curriculum developed by scientists from the University of California at Santa Barbara was evaluated to determine best practices for implementing...

This work presents scientific materialism as a dated worldview, calling into question the assumption of strict objectivity in the universe. The author explores various theoretical approaches to knowledge formation and valuation within the context of outdoor education. Theories presented include ecopsychology, phenomenology, panexperientialism, biophilia and Gaia theory. The author also presents an approach to education that emphasizes the felt meaning...

Puget Sound beaches are an important component in supporting natural processes and food webs. Backshores are an ecotone beyond the reaches of the regular tides that are stable enough to support vegetation but are periodically disturbed by extreme high tides, usually in conjunction with extreme storm events. This study showed that the flora associated with South and Central Puget Sound backshores appear to separate into six predominant plant species,...

This research study examines the Communal Forest Enterprise and environmental education in the Purépecha indigenous community of San Juan Nuevo, México. The Communal Forest Enterprise, also known as La Comunidad Indigena, was created in 1981 to establish control and sustainably develop over 18,000 hectares of communal forest lands for the benefit of the local community. The enterprise generates over 1400 jobs for community members. Additional...

A successful environmental education (EE) program is one that supports the mission of the parent organization, meets the needs of its audiences, and is effective at increasing environmental literacy. The High Lonesome Ranch (HLR), a private corporation that operates according to a mixed-use landscape model inspired by Aldo Leopold's land ethic, intends to develop an EE program that will operate within an associated nonprofit organization, the High...

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) youth are disproportionately the targets of discrimination, hostility and violence (Kosciw et al, 2012). This pattern of oppression can follow LGBT youth onto the college campus, and play a shaping force in their development as young adults (Robison, 2011; Longerbeam et al, 2007). As compared to the larger campus population, LGBT students have to be constantly concerned for their safety and inclusion...

Striking changes in American society resulted in the passage of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973, one of many laws passed during the environmental era of the 1960s and 70s. In just a few decades, we as a society moved from vilification and elimination of many species (or indifference to their decline) to protecting them legally under the ESA--a ground-breaking law based on the belief that all species have a fundamental right to exist. The...

This thesis explores the confluence between social innovation, social incubators and the emergence of a new way of thinking and being while also participating in a gift economy. As participant and observer, the researcher visited one extraordinary social innovation lab located in Chatham, New York to study experiences of lab participants, alumni, organizers, and members of the coach team. Single case study and narrative ethnography were the overarching...

This study synthesizes and articulates what is known about the ecology and the gendered significances of the three most popular and indicative berry species of the Circumpolar north: lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea ), crowberry (Empetrum nigrum), and cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus ). Employing a meta-ethnographic research approach that is informed by tenets of decolonizing and feminism methodologies it seeks to understand how the phytogeography...

This thesis examines the factors that influence the development of an ecological consciousness in children and seeks to answer two overarching questions, including (1) how can an ecological consciousness be developed in children, and (2) can the influences that lead to the development of an ecological consciousness be embedded within a new learning structure for environmental education?" This study developed from the belief that environmental education...