EXAMINING THE CORRELATION BETWEEN NATURE INTERACTION IN YOUTH AND UNDERSTANDING OF EARTH PROCESSES LATER IN LIFE

Determining whether interacting with nature as a child impacts one’s understanding of Earth processes later in life has implications for geoscience education with students from diverse living situations. People with a strong place attachment take threatening environmental issues affecting their home more seriously (Kyle et al., 2004), this is particularly salient for those from systemically non-dominant populations (e.g. Smith et al., 2014). Additionally, Elkins (2007) reported that students who participated in entirely field-based introductory geology courses tended to increase competence greater than in classroom-based geology courses within nine weeks. In this study, we hypothesized that subjects who spent a large amount of time outside growing up or grew up near water (oceans, rivers, heavy rainfall, etc.) would be better at explaining what geologic processes were occurring in images of natural landscapes that were shaped by water processes of erosion and deposition. Interviewees were from economically and geographically diverse backgrounds. Image-processed think-aloud protocol was used and interviewees were asked to describe images of natural landscapes of water processes such as a receding glacier, meandering river, and eroding beach bluff. Directly after the image analysis, subjects were given the Place Attachment Instrument (Raymond, 2010), which is used to relate life experiences and background to interpretation of earth processes. After input from the geoscience community, the protocol was modified to only interview subjects who had never taken a geology course in order to assure there was not a bias in recent knowledge gained. We found that interviewees with more time spent outside in their youth have displayed a stronger ability to describe geologic processes and formations in images presented to them. No correlation between subjects with more nature-importance in their upbringing and understanding of processes has been found.