Project Title: Planting Seeds for a Sustainable Future: The Vital Role of Environmental Education for Children
BASIS Advisor: Marvin McCollum
Internship Location: TIDES at the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy
Onsite Mentor: Haley McClanahan
Only 12% of high school and middle school students have a foundational understanding of environmental issues & solutions. This number is extremely low, especially with the rising environmental problems that continue to arise in recent years. This study will explore the impacts of environmental education and examine its benefits within an after-school program curriculum.
Incorporating environmental education into after-school programs is essential to developing Gen Z’s central knowledge, skills, and value systems in becoming eco-friendly citizens. In learning about environmental issues at a young age, children are more likely to incorporate sustainable practices and eco-friendly solutions into their daily lives. This education is also crucial for Gen Z students to make informed decisions about environmental issues and eventually become leaders in promoting environmental sustainability within their communities.
I intend to work directly with an organization specializing in children's environmental education. Hopefully, with this experience, I will also be able to collect surveys to compare the percentage of students that were environmentally aware before and after the completion of the program in hopes of seeing a noticeable difference. I will also review academic literature produced by experts in the field of education and environmental sustainability. I plan to obtain this academic literature from the Brooklyn Public Library, the New York Public Library, and online resources through Jstor. Utilizing these resources I will be able to properly display the benefits of environmental education with both quantitative and qualitative evidence.
My Posts
Week 7/8
May 22, 2023
Hi everyone! These past 2 weeks, I’ve been working with the TIDES program helping out, these weeks were more focused on the volunteering side of the program. The 2 projects that need to be accomplished were a Coastal Clean-up alongside Pier 2 beach in Brooklyn Bridge Park and a Green Team in the park as […]
Week 6
May 08, 2023
Hi everyone! Hope all of you are well. This past week for me has just been gathering all of the responses I’ve gotten on my recent survey, which I linked in my last blog post if anybody wants to check that out. I’ve been organizing the responses I’ve gotten and putting them into categories and […]
Week 4/5
Apr 28, 2023
Hi everyone! Hope all of you are doing well. These past 2 weeks have been very exciting, I’ve started to work at my on-site placement at the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy with a program called TIDES which I was a part of back in the 10th grade. My main job has been to assist in […]
Week 2/3
Apr 16, 2023
Hi everyone! Hope all of you are doing well. In these past 2 weeks, I’ve been in contact with Haley Mclanahan, the Head of Education at the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy about finalizing a more concrete schedule, where I would go in 3 days a week working with an environmental education program called TIDES (Teens […]
Week 1
Apr 03, 2023
Hi everyone! Hope all of you are doing well. This first week of my senior project has been exciting. I’ve been trying to create a concrete schedule for my research to progress in my findings before going and working on-site with participants in the TIDES program. For the majority of my time, I’ve been refining […]
Week: 0
Mar 18, 2023
Hi! I’m Alex Davolio, I’ve been at basis since the 5th grade and am graduating this year. For the next 10 weeks, I will be blogging about the research I will be doing about the benefits of environmental education on children. Throughout high school, I’ve always been interested in environmental science and sustainability, and I […]