The Effects of a National Wildlife Refuge's EE Programs on Elementary School Classes’ Knowledge and Attitudes

Abstract

In 1997, the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge-Prairie Learning Center began offering on-site environmental education (EE) to school groups visiting their reconstructed tallgrass prairie. To evaluate the EE program, fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade classes from central Iowa completed a pre- and post-visit knowledge and attitudes survey and results were compared with similar classes that did not visit the refuge. Results indicate a significant increase in knowledge and a positive change in attitudes in the treatment group two weeks after visiting the refuge compared with the control group. This research also tested the effectiveness of hands-on stewardship activities in changing knowledge and attitudes. No differences were detected in either knowledge or attitudes between treatment classes that participated in stewardship activities and treatment classes that did not.