Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Introduction

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Natural World and Science Education in the United States

  • 241 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter sets up the context and scholarly significance of the book. We begin with the nature and extent of ecological crises currently facing humankind and elaborate upon the role of schools in general and science education in particular in preparing citizens to meet and mitigate these ecological problems. We then present the nature and scope of research on the representation, teaching, and learning about nature and natural systems in science education and explain the need that this book aspires to serve. The chapter ends with an outline of the organizational plan of the book in which we briefly describe each of the subsequent chapters.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 19.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    One of us (Sharma) was part of this group in the initial stages of the research project.

References

  • Aguayo, C., Higgins, B., Field, E., Nicholls, J., Pudin, S., Tiu, S. A., … Mah, J. (2016). Perspectives from emerging researchers: What next in EE/SE research? Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 32(1), 17–29. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2015.57

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, C. W., de los Santos, E. X., Bodbyl Roels, S., Covitt, B., Edwards, K. D., Hancock, J. B., … Welch, M. (2017). Designing educational systems to support enactment of the Next Generation Science Standards. CarbonTIME. Retrieved from http://carbontime.bscs.org/conference-presentations

  • Anderson, M. (2017). For Earth Day, here’s how Americans view environmental issues. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/20/for-earth-day-heres-how-americans-view-environmental-issues/

  • Assaraf, O. B. Z., & Damri, S. (2009). University science graduates’ environmental perceptions regarding industry. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 18(5), 367–381.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bäckstrand, K., & Lövbrand, E. (2006). Planting trees to mitigate climate change: Contested discourses of ecological modernization, green governmentality and civic environmentalism. Global Environmental Politics, 6(1), 50–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnosky, A. D., Matzke, N., Tomiya, S., Wogan, G. O. U., Swartz, B., Quental, T. B., … Ferrer, E. A. (2011). Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived? Nature, 471(7336), 51–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boysen, L. R., Lucht, W., Gerten, D., Heck, V., Lenton, T. M., & Schellnhuber, H. J. (2017). The limits to global-warming mitigation by terrestrial carbon removal. Earth’s Future, 5(5), 463–474. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016EF000469

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brulle, R. J. (2000). Agency, democracy, and nature: The U.S. environmental movement from a critical theory perspective. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheng, J. C., & Monroe, M. C. (2012). Connection to nature: Children’s affective attitude toward nature. Environment and Behavior, 44(1), 31–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916510385082

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, B., & York, R. (2005). Carbon metabolism: Global capitalism, climate change, and the biospheric rift. Theory and Society, 34(4), 391–428.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cobern, W. W. (2000). Everyday thoughts about nature: A worldview investigation of important concepts students use to make sense of nature with specific attention to science. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Colucci-Gray, L., Camino, E., Barbiero, G., & Gray, D. (2006). From scientific literacy to sustainability literacy: An ecological framework for education. Science Education, 90(2), 227–252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Covitt, B. A., Tan, E., Tsurusaki, B. K., & Anderson, C. W. (2009). Students’ use of scientific knowledge and practices when making decisions in citizens‘ roles. Paper presented at the annual conference of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching. Garden Grove, CA. http://edr1.educ.msu.edu/EnvironmentalLit/publicsite/html/report_2009.html.

  • Crowell, A., & Schunn, C. (2014). Scientifically literate action: Key barriers and facilitators across context and content. Public Understanding of Science, 23(6), 718–733. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662512469780

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, J. (2013). Collapse: How societies choose to fail or survive. London, UK: Penguin Books Limited.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dietz, T., Fitzgerald, A., & Shwom, R. (2005). Environmental values. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 30(1), 335–372. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.energy.30.050504.144444

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dietz, T., Ostrom, E., & Stern, P. C. (2003). The struggle to govern the commons. Science, 302(5652), 1907–1912.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dryzek, J. S. (2013). The politics of the Earth: Environmental discourses. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eagles, P. F. J., & Demare, R. (1999). Factors influencing children’s environmental attitudes. The Journal of Environmental Education, 30(4), 33–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958969909601882

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrlich, P. R., & Ehrlich, A. H. (2013). Can a collapse of global civilization be avoided? Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 280(1754), 20122845.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, E. C., Klein Goldewijk, K., Siebert, S., Lightman, D., & Ramankutty, N. (2010). Anthropogenic transformation of the biomes, 1700 to 2000. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 19(5), 589–606. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00540.x

    Google Scholar 

  • Ergazaki, M., & Ampatzidis, G. (2012). Students’ reasoning about the future of disturbed or protected ecosystems and the idea of the “balance of nature”. Research in Science Education, 42(3), 511–530.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feinstein, N. W., & Kirchgasler, K. L. (2015). Sustainability in science education? How the next generation science standards approach sustainability, and why it matters. Science Education, 99(1), 121–144. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21137

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Funk, C., & Kennedy, B. (2016). Public views on climate change and climate scientists. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gruenewald, D. A. (2004). A Foucauldian analysis of environmental education: Toward the socioecological challenge of the Earth charter. Curriculum Inquiry, 34(1), 71–107. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-873X.2004.00281.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gunckel, K. L., Mohan, L., Covitt, B. A., & Anderson, C. W. (2012). Addressing challenges in developing learning progressions for environmental science literacy. In A. C. Alonzo & A. W. Gotwals (Eds.), Learning progressions in science (pp. 39–75). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, J., Sato, M., Kharecha, P., Beerling, D., Berner, R., Masson-Delmotte, V., … Zachos, J. C. (2008). Target atmospheric CO2: Where should humanity aim? Open Atmospheric Science Journal, 2, 217–231.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hansson, L. (2014). Students’ views concerning worldview presuppositions underpinning science: Is the world really ordered, uniform, and comprehensible? Science Education, 98(5), 743–765.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hardin, G. (2009). The tragedy of the commons. Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research, 1(3), 243–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harper, C., & Snowden, M. (2017). Environment and society: Human perspectives on environmental issues. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hempel, L. C. (1996). Environmental governance: The global challenge. Washington, DC: Island Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hovardas, T., & Korfiatis, K. (2011). Towards a critical re-appraisal of ecology education: Scheduling an educational intervention to revisit the ‘balance of nature’ metaphor. Science & Education, 20(10), 1039–1053. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-010-9325-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hufnagel, E., Kelly, G. J., & Henderson, J. A. (2017). How the environment is positioned in the next generation science standards: A critical discourse analysis. Environmental Education Research, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2017.1334876

  • Jenkins, E. W. (2003). Environmental education and the public understanding of science. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 1(8), 437–443.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jin, H., & Anderson, C. W. (2012). A learning progression for energy in socio-ecological systems. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 49(9), 1149–1180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahn, B. (2017). We just breached the 410 ppm threshold for CO2. Scientific American. Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-just-breached-the-410-ppm-threshold-for-co2/

  • Kempton, W., Boster, J. S., & Hartley, J. A. (1995). Environmental values in American culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lefkaditou, A., Korfiatis, K., & Hovardas, T. (2014). Contextualizing the teaching and learning of ecology: Historical and philosophical considerations. In M. R. Matthews (Ed.), International handbook of research in history, philosophy and science teaching (pp. 523–550). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, J., & Ernst, J. (2015). Exploring value orientations toward the human–nature relationship: A comparison of urban youth in Minnesota, USA and Guangdong, China. Environmental Education Research, 21(4), 556–585. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2014.910499

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindahl, M. G., & Linder, C. (2015). What's natural about nature? Deceptive concepts in socio-scientific decision-making. European Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 3(3), 250–264.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, S., & Lin, H. (2014). Undergraduate students’ science-related ideas as embedded in their environmental worldviews. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 12(5), 1001–1021.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGrath, M. (2017). Donald Trump forest climate change project gains momentum. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40927667

  • Melnick, D. J., Pearl, M. C., & Warfield, J. (2015). Make forests pay. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/20/opinion/a-carbon-offset-market-for-trees.html

  • Miller, J. D. (2016). Civic scientific literacy in the United States in 2016. Retrieved from http://home.isr.umich.edu/files/2016/10/NASA-CSL-in-2016-Report.pdf

  • Mohan, L., Chen, J., & Anderson, C. W. (2009). Developing a multi-year learning progression for carbon cycling in socio-ecological systems. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 46(6), 675–698.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Monastersky, R. (2009). Climate crunch: A burden beyond bearing. Nature, 458(7242), 1091–1094.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mueller, M. P., & Tippins, D. J. (2012). Citizen science, ecojustice, and science education: Rethinking an education from nowhere. In Second international handbook of science education (pp. 865–882). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • National Science Board. (2016). Science and engineering indicators 2016. Alexandria, VA: National Science Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/2016/nsb20161/#/

  • Nielsen, J. A. (2012). Arguing from nature: The role of ‘nature’ in students’ argumentations on a socio-scientific issue. International Journal of Science Education, 34(5), 723–744.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Payne, P., Cutter-Mackenzie, A., Gough, A., Gough, N., & Whitehouse, H. (2014). Children’s conceptions of nature. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 30(1), 68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pearce, F. (2006). When the rivers run dry: Water – The defining crisis of the twenty-first century. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pedretti, E., & Nazir, J. (2011). Currents in STSE education: Mapping a complex field, 40 years on. Science Education, 95(4), 601–626. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.20435

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pointon, P. (2014). ‘The city snuffs out nature’: Young people’s conceptions of and relationship with nature. Environmental Education Research, 20(6), 776–794. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2013.833595

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quigley, C., & Allspaw, K. (2011). The cultural and ecological “worlds” of Central Asia. Science Scope, 35(2), 71–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raftery, A. E., Zimmer, A., Frierson, D. M. W., Startz, R., & Liu, P. (2017). Less than 2 °C warming by 2100 unlikely. Nature Climate Change, 7, 637. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3352. https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate3352#supplementary-information

  • Ranney, M. A., & Clark, D. (2016). Climate change conceptual change: Scientific information can transform attitudes. Topics in Cognitive Science, 8(1), 49–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruppert, J., & Duncan, R. G. (2017). Defining and characterizing ecosystem services for education: A Delphi study. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 54(6), 737–763. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21384

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sadler, T. D., & Dawson, V. (2012). Socio-scientific issues in science education: Contexts for the promotion of key learning outcomes. In Second international handbook of science education (pp. 799–809). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Schmitz, O. J. (2016). The new ecology: Rethinking a science for the Anthropocene. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sellers, C. C. (2012). Crabgrass crucible: Suburban nature and the rise of environmentalism in twentieth-century America. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharma, A., & Buxton, C. (2015). Human-nature relationships in school science discourse: A critical discourse analysis of a middle grade science textbook. Science Education, 99(2), 260–281.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shepardson, D. P., Roychoudhury, A., & Hirsch, A. S. (Eds.). (2017). Teaching and learning about climate change: A framework for educators. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shepherd, J., Iglesias-Rodriguez, D., & Yool, A. (2007). Geo-engineering might cause, not cure, problems. Nature, 449(7164), 781–781.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steffen, W., Crutzen, P. J., & McNeill, J. R. (2007). The Anthropocene: Are humans now overwhelming the great forces of nature. Ambio: A Journal of the Human Environment, 36(8), 614–621.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stephen, M. G. (2016). Geoengineering: Ethical questions for deliberate climate manipulators. In S. M. Gardiner & A. Thompson (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of environmental ethics. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sterman, J. D., & Sweeney, L. B. (2007). Understanding public complacency about climate change: Adults’ mental models of climate change violate conservation of matter. Climatic Change, 80(3), 213–238. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-006-9107-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tikka, P. M., Kuitunen, M. T., & Tynys, S. M. (2000). Effects of educational background on students’ attitudes, activity levels, and knowledge concerning the environment. The Journal of Environmental Education, 31(3), 12–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958960009598640

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Treanor, B. (2010). Environmentalism and public virtue. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 23(1), 9–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsurusaki, B. K., & Anderson, C. W. (2010). Students’ understanding of connections between human engineered and natural environmental systems. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 5(4), 407–433.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turin, D. R. (2014). Environmental problems and American politics: Why is protecting the environment so difficult? Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse, 6(11). Retrieved from http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=943

  • Vining, J., Merrick, M. S., & Price, E. A. (2008). The distinction between humans and nature: Human perceptions of connectedness to nature and elements of the natural and unnatural. Human Ecology Review, 15(1), 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weaver, A. A. (2002). Determinants of environmental attitudes. International Journal of Sociology, 32(1), 77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, C., & Cuddington, K. (2007). Ambiguous, circular and polysemous: Students’ definitions of the “balance of nature” metaphor. Public Understanding of Science, 16(4), 393–406. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662505063022

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational Theory and Practice, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Ajay Sharma

  2. University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Cory Buxton

Authors
  1. Ajay Sharma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Cory Buxton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Sharma, A., Buxton, C. (2018). Introduction. In: The Natural World and Science Education in the United States. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76186-2_1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76186-2_1

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76185-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76186-2

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation