Background: Marine debris is a global environmental crisis. Although technical solutions to deal with marine debris have been developed, successful implementation hinges on backing from an environmentally-literate citizenry. Unfortunately, there are several barriers to building an environmentally-literate citizenry, such as low scientific literacy and politicization of environmental issues. Purpose: Environmental education (EE) among K-12 audiences is a promising social sciences pathway to promote environmental literacy (EL) among adults. EE research has identified strategies for building EL among children, including interventions that are locally based, hands-on, and action-oriented. Pairing these techniques with outreach to older generations through their children may build EL among adults through intergenerational learning, or IGL. IGL may also affect change beyond parents and impact community adults. Methods: This research investigates the community-level IGL pathway with a focus on marine debris via an EE curriculum for students in North Carolina, USA (coastal state). For this treatment-control experimental design, we recruited 36 teachers and randomly assigned them to treatment (n= 21) and control (n=15) groups. We trained the treatment teachers in the marine debris curriculum and collected pre-test data from teachers, students, and parents in Fall 2018. In Spring 2019, we collected post-test data from all groups plus a retrospective-post survey for local adults including officials in business and government. Results: This poster will provide preliminary data of child and parent views on marine debris and data from local community adults after their engagement with the students. Conclusions: Preliminary data from the year one suggest that youth have the power to change the attitudes and behaviors of adults on environmental issues. This work provides hope for the marine debris crisis and also elevates an often voiceless group in modern-day society: youth.

1. MAKING WAVES OF COMMUNITY CHANGE:
YOUTH AS ENVIRONMENTAL CHAMPIONS
FOR REDUCING MARINE DEBRIS
Jenna M. Hartley, North Carolina State University PhD Student | Raleigh, NC North Carolina State University, College of Natural Resources, Department of Parks, Recreation, & Tourism Management, Raleigh, NC
North Carolina State University, College of Natural Resources, Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, Raleigh, NC
Duke University, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University Marine Lab, Beaufort, NC
North Carolina State University, College of Education, Department of Teacher Education and Learning Sciences, Raleigh, NC
North Carolina State University, College of Education, Department of STEM Education, Raleigh, NC
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
T H E S O L U T I O N :
K I D S !
P R E L I M I N A R Y R E S U L T S
thank you!
North Carolina Sea Grant
Duke University Marine Lab
North Carolina State University
NOAA Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship
and of course ...
our teachers!
Students
Parents
Community
ADULTs?
Local
Officials?
This work explores the IGL pathway of students to local adult community
members & local officials via civic engagement events .
This work explores the issue of marine
debris (ocean plastic pollution) via
social science solutions & students.
convincing a brewery to donate proceeds to ocean non-profit
cheers!
This beach
sweep was one
of this project's
civic
engagement
events . 300+
community
members
attended,
including the
drone pilot who
took this photo:
Hank Carter.
There are roughly
of plastic on the earth.
It seems unfathomable, but think of it this way:
annual plastic production has surpassed
.
That much plastic is a problem.
9.1 BILLION TONS
Participation will lead to
i n c r e a s e s i n :
before the event after the event
do you think that students can change your mind on
important environmental topics?
Conclusion:
kids are awesome
Statistical analyses on community adults
(Duvall & Zint, 2007;
Williams et al., 2017)
Student learning has been shown to “trickle up” from
students to parents via intergenerational learning or IGL.
Recent research shows that this child-to-parent direction for
IGL on environmental topics may also extend beyond the
family to local adults.
Stevenson, K. T.(1), Peterson, N. P.(2), DeMattia, E.(3), Strnad, R.(2), Carrier, S. J.(4), Busch, K. C.(5)
Contact me: jenna_hartley@ncsu.edu @JennaMHartley
THE ISSUE: MARINE DEBRIS
H O W ? I N T E R G E N E R A T I O N A L
L E A R N I N G + C I V I C E N G A G E M E N T
HYPOTHESES
#EEDebris
https://eedebris.weebly.com/
Brooks, A. L., Wang, S., & Jambeck, J. R. (2018). The Chinese import ban and its impact on global plastic waste trade. Science advances, 4(6), eaat0131.
Duvall, J. & Zint, M. (2007). A Review of Research on the Effectiveness of Environmental Education in Promoting Intergenerational Learning. The Journal of Environmental
Education, 38, 14-24.
Schusler, T. M., & Krasny, M. E. (2008). Youth participation in local environmental action: An avenue for science and civic learning?. In Participation and learning (pp. 268-
284). Springer, Dordrecht.
Williams, S., McEwen, L. J., & Quinn, N. (2017). As the climate changes: Intergenerational action-based learning in relation to flood education. The Journal of
Environmental Education, 48(3), 154-171.
Worm, B., Lotze, H. K., Jubinville, I., Wilcox, C., & Jambeck, J. (2017). Plastic as a persistent marine pollutant. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 42, 1-26.
Teachers
performing a play speaking at town hall "trash fashion show" making psa videos...and more!
E X P E R I M E N T A L D E S I G N
bit.ly/EEDebrisCurriculum
E.DeMattiaAllphotosbelowbyJ.Hartley
(Brooks et al., 2018)
the entire weight of humanity
#of #of student #of parent local
group teachers responses responses adults
treatment 12 451 204 39
control 9 115 104 n/a
treatment 38 ~1,500 ~650 ~125
control 9 ~115 ~100 n/a
2 0 1 9 - 2 0 2 0
2 0 1 8 - 2 0 1 9
Parents
Community Adults
Local Officials
pro-environmental behavior
belief in youth as change-agents
marine debris knowledge & concern
perceived importance of scientific data
J.Hartley
(Worm et al., 2017)
(US)
1
2
3
4
5
.
*In a survey of local community adults after a student-led civic
engagement event on marine debris, regression analyses found:
*
Community adult attitudes about the power of youth as
environmental change agents increased after the event
regardless of adult age, gender, political affiliation, distance
from the coast, or whether they already knew the student.
Examples of their events:
The marine debris curriculum was developed by
the Duke University Marine Lab (DUML).
~2,500 4th & 5th grade students from 33
counties across the state of North Carolina are
learning about marine debris from an
environmental education (EE) curriculum.
(Schusler & Krasny, 2008)
Strong Liberal
Lean Liberal
Lean Conservative
Strong Conservative
Something else
Independent
NC teachers were recruited statewide &
randomly assigned to treatment or
control groups in a pre-post
experimental design.
Treatment teachers were trained on the
curriculum at DUML (Summers '18 & '19).
Treatment teachers deliver DUML
curriculum & control teachers deliver
standard curriculum.
Research in progress! Current n=36, ~150 expected
5 10 15 20
6.2%
9.4%
43.7%
40.6%
Millennials
(1977-1995)
Baby Boomers
(1946-1964)
Generation X
(1965-1976)
Greatest Gen (-1945)
1-25 75-100 100+
Distance from coast
8%
38%
54%
2-day Teacher
Training
Strongly
Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree