How Project-Based Learning Enhances Environmental Science Education

Do your students want to do more for their environment outside of the classroom?

Are you looking for ways to increase engagement with environmental science classes?

With project-based learning (PBL), you can provide opportunities for your learners to take real, effective action and tie it directly into their curriculum to improve learning outcomes.

That’s because content by itself isn’t necessarily engaging. Engagement comes by creating situations where learners can better relate to the content, making them feel more invested and involved. Additionally, expanding learners’ learning and social contexts beyond just their peers and the classroom can increase their motivation to tackle challenges or investigate issues.

PBL can enhance content by connecting it more to their learner’s lived experiences. The way PBL asks learners to address existing problems and real needs — both global and local — make it a natural fit for environmental education.

What Is Project-Based Learning?

If you haven’t utilized project-based learning in your curriculum, understand that it’s distinct from short-term or one-off activities. PBL is designed to have learners investigate and respond to an authentic and complex question, problem, or challenge for an extended period of time. As defined by PBLWorks, there are seven standard design elements and seven teaching best practices that make up the “gold standard” of PBL.

PBL is designed to connect students to higher-level concepts and skills such as critical thinking and problem solving through authentic, hands-on experiences by working with others. Through this approach, PBL has been shown to provide many important learning benefits, including:

• Teaching important 21st-century skills as part of core academic subjects
• Showing a connection between academic concepts and their practical applications
• Helping to make abstract concepts more concrete
• Having students learn to work through productive struggle and practice perseverance
• Asking learners to identify and use the right tools and technologies to solve problems
• Learning how to communicate and collaborate with peers and other stakeholders
• Promoting creativity, self-expression, and innovation to develop solutions

Benefits of PBL for Environmental Science

Understanding environmental issues can be a challenge for some students, and knowing how to address them can be even harder. PBL helps make these challenging issues more relatable and offers learners a chance to take action by building confidence, knowledge, problem-solving skills and motivation.

Thankfully, PBL works well in environmental science for a few reasons: it provides a clear connection to real issues, it asks students to directly engage with tools and its structure makes it easier to bring learners outside of the classroom.

Employing PBL within science, biology, social studies, or other environmental curricula can not only make learning more engaging, it can have additional positive impacts for the learners, the school, the community, and the local environment:

• Projects that involve working in teams offer more opportunities for learners to work with people outside of their regular social groups.
• PBL provides an excellent chance to engage learners more deeply with the community while also fostering greater community involvement with your school.
• Outdoor projects can help reduce stress and behavioral issues, increase physical activity and connectedness, and improve learners’ overall moods
• It’s an effective use of resources, allowing educators to make use of school grounds and facilities and community resources such as parks, forests, and waterways.

Challenges and Solutions

Implementing environmental science project-based learning isn’t just about inserting a project into an existing curriculum. You have to be mindful of your existing resources, the capabilities of your learners, and your capacity as an educator.

Consider utilizing PBLWorks’ Project Design Elements checklist as a helpful guide to get started. As challenges arise, consider the following starting points to find solutions that work for you.

• How to come up with project ideas At its best, PBL is learner-driven, so you need to figure out what your students are interested in. Research different approaches at the elementary and high school levels and consider how you can apply them within your environmental science context. One example is to ask students to record observations about their local environment. Collect these observations and then have a discussion about any emerging patterns they’re noticing. From there, allow the learners to prioritize the topics they want to pursue as a project.
• How to develop a plan of action In PBL you try to get the learners to consider which actions they can take to find solutions. You can always offer direction, so ask them to research how other organizations have tried to solve related environmental problems. Have them research and then share what they learned. From there, you can guide through the process of determining the actions required to address the issues. Always encourage experimentation, inquiry, self-reflection, and collaboration to walk through the different possible approaches before arriving on a plan of action.
• How to go beyond the classroom Community engagement is a pillar of PBL, so going beyond the classroom should be more than taking a field trip. Reach out to local experts, specialists, and professionals to see if they’re interested in presenting to the class. Hold brainstorming sessions where learners identify community organizations or support systems that could be relevant to their projects and discuss strategies for securing their assistance. When you do take the classroom outside of the school grounds, contact volunteers at institutions such as museums, state and national parks, and environmental agencies who may be able to work with students when you’re visiting.
• How to go beyond the physical space If your learners aren’t able to travel, or their interests go beyond their local community, you still have options. One of the positive takeaways from the COVID-19 pandemic is that there is more openness to — and acceptance of — hybrid and remote learning opportunities. Look for virtual field trips that combine collaboration and learning. For example, the National Park Service offers a range of distance learning programs, such as ranger-led field trips to the Denali National Park & Preserve and Acadia National Park national parks, which could be worked into a PBL project.
• How to make it feasible Learners (and teachers!) may need some time to adjust to PBL, and you may not have the resources to do everything the class would like to accomplish. Especially when starting out with a PBL approach, look for ways to keep things manageable. Help the learners determine the “low-hanging fruits” they can accomplish first to feel successful. Send surveys home to see if — and how — parents and guardians are willing to help out with projects. Look for partnerships with local organizations for assistance, sponsorship, or even financial support.

Case Studies of PBL in Environmental Science

What does PBL for environmental science classes look like? Some successful examples include:

• Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., where middle school students contributed to a “real-world” biodiversity study by identifying more than 50 species of native bees in their area. Several of those species had never before been documented in the city.
• Carver Middle School in Coral Gables, Fla., where students studied, designed, and implemented cost-saving energy-conservation projects that helped to increase their schools’ energy efficiency by 28% in one school year

Other potential ideas and projects you can recommend or suggest include:

• Establishing a community environmental initiative, such a recycling program or clean-up drive
• Participating in biodiversity programs by cataloging local animals, insects, and plants
• Starting environmental impact assessments using data sensors and modeling programs

Partnering with local nonprofit youth development organizations — such your local 4-H — can also be a great way to develop environmental projects for learners. For example, the Pennsylvania 4-H offers a variety of projects that introduce youth to the environment and ecosystem, including learning about biodiversity, ecosystems, and climates while out in the field.

In all cases, start with the problem or challenge and then work with the learners to determine the right tools for the job, which will help you to enable more authentic ways of addressing the problem. The right tools will also help learners learn how to use technology and apply their skills to address issues directly within their local environment and community.

Future of Environmental Education

Hands-on environmental education is likely to only grow in importance. Sustainable and “green energy” jobs are among the projected fastest-growing occupations for the next 10 years. The critical thinking and problem-solving skills fostered by project-based learning are essential in preparing learners for these important careers. At the same time, learners may feel anxious about the threat of climate change and environmental disasters and want to take real action that will positively impact the environment and their own lives.

The greater availability of technological advancements, including remote sensors, drones, and even virtual reality can help students explore different elements of our environment and expand the possible range of PBL projects. To get started, look to examples of how organizations and nonprofits such as The National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) or the Pacific Education Institute are using tools to expand project-based learning in the environment.

You can also reach out to local conservation organizations to discuss possible collaborations, such as National Park Services. Just as PBL is community-focused, it’s the collaboration between educators, researchers, professionals, and policymakers that will help drive the successful integration of PBL into environmental curricula, providing learners with the ability to better engage with the world they live in.

Get the basics on how you can use project-based learning to help learners engage with the curriculum though our free eBook: Increasing Student Outcomes with PBL. 

eBook

Improving Outcomes With Project-Based Learning

Get the basics on how you can use project-based learning to help learners engage with the curriculum though our free eBook:

Increasing Student Outcomes with PBL.