OPPORTUNITIES FOR ENGAGEMENT: HOW STUDENTS SITUATE FOOD-ENERGY-WATER NEXUS TOPICS WITHIN SENSE OF PLACE

Leveraging students’ sense of place, or positive and meaningful personal connections with a physical setting, is a promising framework for promoting engagement in environmental science education. As part of an ongoing study investigating undergraduate student understanding of food, energy, and water (FEW) concepts, our research team discovered that students discuss these topics in tandem with describing a sense of place. Thus, we propose that examining these spontaneous connections students make between environmental science topics and their everyday attachment to places would contextualize how students perceive these topics to be relevant in their everyday lives. In the present study, we thematically analyzed student interviews to address the research question: in what ways do students’ understanding of FEW concepts connect to place and their own place meanings? We coded 115 student interviews from 10 United States institutions for descriptions of sense of place when answering questions about FEW concepts. Places described fell on a spectrum of personal significance, from general mentions of local places to detailed descriptions of how FEW concepts relate to their homes. By continuing to examine which FEW topics students situate within their lived experiences, we aim to outline potential pathways of engaging students with real-world FEW nexus applications that they already encounter in their daily lives. These findings will provide educators and researchers with insight into opportunities to scaffold transformative learning experiences for students engaging with these vital interdisciplinary concepts.