Hearing from Our Kids: An Environmental Study

Lorraine Stephanson and Louise Jones

The Brightwater Science and Environmental Center is a facility outside Saskatoon that is used by the school system to instil environmental awareness in middle years students. A grade 7 teacher, who visited the center with her students three times in the fall, winter, and spring of 1995-96, worked with the center's program coordinator to investigate the impact of the visits on her students. Naturalistic inquiry was used to discover how the students viewed the environment before and after they had been immersed in the environmental program at Brightwater.

Through students' reflective journals, small group and individual interviews, and observational field notes, Stephanson and Jones identified a wide range of student learnings - from intrapersonal to societal - that emerged from the Brightwater experience. They discovered that to focus only on the views that the students held about environmental issues constituted too narrow a perspective to develop an understanding of the growth occurring in the students' minds and hearts. They categorized the students' learnings under four headings: understanding of environmental issues, self-knowledge, peer interaction, and the impact of the Brightwater site.

1. Students' Understanding of Environmental Issues

Prior to their first visit to Brightwater, students participated in a survey designed to probe both their knowledge and opinions on environmental issues. The survey, which was intended to provide a baseline for the knowledge students possessed, revealed that their comprehension of current environmental issues was minimal. More than two thirds of the students were unable to comment on such issues as air pollution, water resources, soil destruction, garbage or over-population. Generalized statements were made by the majority of the remaining students, e.g., concerning soil destruction - "It's happening everywhere," or on the topic of toxic chemicals - "It's bad for anything." In general, students' written comments reflected their awareness that there are problems with the environment, but a very superficial understanding of specific issues.

The same survey was administered in June, following the students' last visit to Brightwater, with very different results. All students commented on all topics with specific reference to incidents or events which had occurred during the year. Their opinions on the environment indicated a change between the pre- and post-surveys in students' willingness to become more proactive in protecting the environment and to take a more optimistic view of the future.

2. Students' Self-knowledge

The multidisciplinary unit developed for the students' first visit to Brightwater was designed to help the students begin to see themselves as having the potential to exert influence on their lives and on the environment. It became apparent, as the year progressed, that the students were recognizing the importance of personal empowerment. They understood that gaining or accessing that empowerment can affect an individual's commitment to be proactive in relationship to the environment, and that the authority to be an environmental activist is preceded by a sense of the self as capable. One student wrote, "I've learned that I can take care of myself more and if I can take care of me, I can help take care of the land too." The connection between empowerment and activism was repeatedly acknowledged in the students' reflections.

3. Peer Interaction

Along with self-empowerment, the importance of peer interactions became a significant and recurrent theme in the students' journals and discussions. Experiencing Brightwater together gave students a shared vision and an opportunity to discover and acknowledge the strength of peers. As one student wrote, "People seem different there and you become closer to them." The ability to work together cooperatively became a common goal, with students repeatedly referring to how they helped each other during activities and free time.

4. The Impact of the Brightwater Site

The importance of being able to connect physically and emotionally with a natural environment over the seasons seemed to have a positive effect on the students' developing awareness of themselves and their place in the environment. The natural setting engendered feelings of freedom and peace:

I remember having the birds come and perch on my shoulders when I was filling the bird feeder. It felt like I was free.

...[W]henever I went there, I didn't worry about things that were bothering me, everything was peaceful and calm.

Comments similar to these increased with each visit as the students began to compare Brightwater environment with their home in the city.

It has changed the way I look at the city. I'm scared that places like Brightwater will be taken away or destroyed and all we'll have left is pollution. I don't want that to happen.

Above: The Grade 7 class conducts water studies.

Above: A student looks after his land plot.