Resident Perceptions of a Proposed Environmental Education Center and Demonstration Farm

To gauge community support for a proposed environmental education center and demonstration farm, we surveyed 514 local residents. Our intent was to assess community members\u27 support for the project and relevant programming interests and to determine the roles that level of community satisfaction, perceived economic impact, and demographics played with regard to project support. We found that most community members supported the development and that levels of community satisfaction, perceptions of economic impact, background, gender, and age were significantly associated with level of support. Our research also revealed that community members were most interested in programs about nature and growing and preserving food and were not interested in technology-based programming

A Multiyear Evaluation of the NaturePalooza Science Festival

We undertook a multiyear evaluation of the NaturePalooza Science Festival, an annual public event designed to increase science literacy and sustainability behavior, to measure impacts. Surveys conducted at the 2014 and 2015 events and 6 months after the 2015 event showed that 77%, 92%, and 100% of respondents, respectively, learned new information. In 2014 and 2015, 85% and 68% of respondents, respectively, intended to change at least one behavior. Additionally, in the 2015 on-site and follow-up surveys, 66% and 62% of respondents, respectively, reported implementing sustainability behaviors. These findings demonstrate that such events can have a positive, measurable impact on visitors\u27 science literacy and sustainability behaviors

Community Engagement: An Appreciative Inquiry Case Study with Theodore Roosevelt National Park Gateway Communities

Appreciative Inquiry was employed to understand the mutual impact of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and nearby communities’ relationships with tourism. Specifically, the goals of this study were to: understand the role of Theodore Roosevelt National Park related to stimulating regional tourism; to ascertain gateway community resident perceptions of benefits from tourism as it relates to economic development and quality of; and, to explore nearby communities’ relationships with the park and how those communities may help influence quality visitor experiences, advance park goals, and develop and leverage partnerships. Results include a collection of emergent themes from the community inquiry related to resource access and tourism management, citizen and community engagement, conservation, marketing, and communication between the park and neighboring residents. These findings illuminate the need to understand nearby communities’ relationship to public lands and regional sustainability support between public land managers and these communities

Unpacking Systems of Privilege: The Opportunity of Critical Reflection in Outdoor Adventure Education

Outdoor adventure education has an extensive history of considering how its students should wrestle with privilege. Recent events have brought issues of privilege to the forefront, which raises the question of whether outdoor adventure education can play a role in learning to see and affect systems of privilege. This paper examines several elements of outdoor adventure education that make it an ideal environment for teaching about systems of privilege, and makes the argument that Jack Mezirow’s critical reflection, wherein people question the principles that underlie their ideas, should be a key element of outdoor adventure education curriculum in the 21st century. The authors’ perspectives are grounded in critical theory and the assumption that power dynamics need to be examined in order to be changed. By combining critical reflection with the unique characteristics of outdoor adventure education, outdoor adventure educators may be able to successfully teach participants to recognize and impact systems that operate around them