Learning in and about rural places: Connections and tensions between students’ everyday experiences and environmental quality issues in their community

Guided by sociocultural perspectives on the importance of <br>place as a resource <br>for learning, we investigated 14- and 15-year old students’ unders<br>tandings of their <br>community and water quality during a school-based watershed <br>unit. Methods included a <br>theory-driven thematic analysis of field notes and video <br>transcripts from four biology <br>classrooms, a qualitative and quantitative analysis of 67 <br>pairs of matched pre- and post-<br>intervention mindmaps, and a content analysis of 73 studen<br>t reflections. As they learned <br>about water quality, learners recognized the relevance of<br> the watershed’s health to the <br>health of their community. Students acknowledged the impa<br>cts of local economically <br>driven activities (e.g., natural gas wells, application o<br>f agrichemicals) and leisure <br>activities (e.g., boating, fishing) on the watershed’s envi<br>ronmental health. As students <br>learned in and about their watershed, they experienced bot<br>h connections and tensions <br>between their everyday experiences and the environmental pr<br>oblems in their community.<br>The students suggested individual sustainability actions needed <br>to address water quality <br>issues; however, the students struggled to understand how to a<br>ct collectively. <br>Implications of rural experiences as assets to future envir<br>onmental sciences learning are <br>discussed as well as the implications of educational expe<br>riences that do not include an <br>advocacy component when students uncover environmental heal<br>th issues. We suggest <br>further consideration is needed on how to help young people<br> develop action-oriented <br>science knowledge, not just inert knowledge of environment<br>al problems, during place-<br>based education units