IMPACT OF EXPLORATORY GEOSCIENCE ACTIVITIES ON STUDENTS’ CONNECTEDNESS TO NATURE

Giving students opportunities to explore their world outside of the classroom has been a common way to promote interest in geoscience. While most students who take introductory geoscience courses will not become practicing geoscientists, it is still important to cultivate and foster students who care about the planet. Undergraduate students in introductory geoscience courses were given the opportunity to complete several extracurricular, experiential-learning activities over the duration of the semester. These students were given pre- and post-semester surveys regarding their feelings about nature, measured from an adapted Connectedness to Nature (CtN) Scale and categorized by participation vs. non-participation in the experiential activities. Analysis of internal coherence of the scale resulted in the removal of one variable and suggests that all variables are measuring the same construct. Students who chose to participate in at least one activity are significantly more likely to change their opinion that “learning about the natural world should be an important part of every child's upbringing” and have greater overall feelings that learning about nature is important than students who did not participate in the activities. Conversely, non-participants are more likely to say they “often feel disconnected from nature” than participants. Non-STEM majors who participate have a significantly higher change in their CtN scores for two variables (“learning about the natural world ...” and “my relationship to nature is an important part of who I am”) than non-STEM major non-participants. This suggests that these experiential activities have a significant positive effect on non-STEM students’ connectedness to nature and could provide a pathway for these students to pursue geoscience or geoscience-related career paths.