Sustaining Sustainability: Key Environmental Education

The project was designed to increase awareness of sustainability and environmental science in public high school students who would otherwise not be exposed to complex environmental problems. This was done by testing the effectiveness of a simple yet comprehensive curriculum that could satisfy and expand the scope of the Arizona Education Science Standard, Essential HS.E1U3.14, while simultaneously being accessible to (and teachable by) any school instructor. Another goal of the project is to stimulate the minds of students who would otherwise not be introduced to the topics of sustainability and environmental science. Utilizing proven visualization and engagement techniques, the curriculum focuses on five key subjects: waste, water, energy, ecosystems, and environmental challenges. Each of these subjects had an educational presentation, interactive activities, question and answer sessions, and bonus activities. To test the overall effectiveness of the curriculum, students were given a pretest to gauge initial comprehension, and then after the five subjects (or modules) were taught, the same test was distributed again to the students. The aforementioned was done with two groups of students. Posttest results support the project effectiveness. The data indicate that the lessons had a positive impact on the test results, with one class averaging 33.6% better on the posttest than the pretest, indicating that the concepts taught did resonate with the students in a measurable way.