The evaluation of environmental education of. Taipei Zoo s insectarium

Transcription

1 The evaluation of environmental education of Taipei Zoo s insectarium Flora Hsu*, Shawn Peng** * Graduate Student, Education Department, National Chengchi University florahsu@mail.moe.gov.tw ** Assistant curator, Education Department, Taipei Zoo dwy17@zoo gov.tw Abstract With the globalization of environmental topic, environmental education becomes many countries' imperative educational objective. The zoo has natural regions and specialized educational facilities for executing educational course, and with its abundant animals, plants and micro-ecosystem, it demonstrates the relation between people and natural ecology, and thus plays the role of environmental education facility well. As far as school teaching is concerned, the zoo will turn into educational resources of outdoor environmental education, and will effectively enhance the environmental knowledge or attitude of those students who visit it, if it brings the function of the environmental education into full play on the part of its facility. This research aims at investigating into the elementary school students condition of using facilities in Insectarium, the effect of students learning environmental knowledge and attitude, as well as whether the differences of students' background variance and facilities using conditions cause the discrepancy in their environmental education results. Finally, for the purpose of reference, it puts forward the suggestion on the zoo s facility planning and program of environmental education. This research is divided into two parts: First, focusing on the 1200 fourth grade elementary school students who participate in the outdoor teaching program of Taipei Zoo as research object, it does a random sampling and questionnaire investigation, in order to understand their reaction to Insectarium s facilities using, their degree of satisfaction in facilities using, the environmental education effect, the environmental attitude effect and personal background materials. Second, it purposefully samples three volunteers to do semi-structured interview, in order to find out their opinion and suggestion on the facilities of Insectarium. In data analyzing, the research mainly adopts methods such as description statistics, percentages, Spearman s rho, t test and ANOVA(analysis of variance). This chapter makes a conclusion according to the conclusion of Chapter Four, and offers advice for the reference of the relevant research of the zoo s environmental education facilities design, as well as of the future actual planning. 80

2 Key world: environmental education, zoo, Insectarium, environmental knowledge, environmental attitude The Aim of the Research (1) To understand the characteristics of the participant students of Taipei Zoo s environmental educational program. (2) To understand the elementary school students conditions of using facilities when visiting Taipei Zoo s Insect Hall, and whether their personal background variance influences the result. (3) To understand the elementary school students learning results of environmental knowledge after using the facilities of Taipei Zoo s Insect Hall, and whether their personal background variance influences it. (4) To understand the elementary school students learning results of environmental attitude after using the facilities of Taipei Zoo s Insect Hall, and whether their personal background variance influence it. (5) To know if the elementary school students conditions of using facilities of Insect Hall are different, their learning effects will be different, too. The methods I Main Theory Gifford s model (1997) points out, that the interaction between student's personal characteristic, learning environment s characteristic and social organization atmosphere determine the attitude and learning behavior correlating with learning. The model is shown in Fig. 1. This model emphasizes the structure of learning situation. Taking outdoor environmental education as an example, one must first consider students personal characteristics, such as his learning attitude, motive, age and sex, and consider the arrangement of course and the learning atmosphere like the teacher's teaching style, and then match up the natural situation that can be observed and operated. If the three things stated above are cooperated appropriately, students may hopefully demonstrate satisfactory learning attitude and behavior, which means the purpose of environmental learning has been fulfilled. 81

3 Fig 1. Gifford s conceptual structure charts of individual and environment in learning situation Gifford II Introduction of Taipei Zoo s Insectarium This research focuses on Taipei Zoo s Insectarium, which is the zoo s first area with a environmental education function. In fact, Taipei Zoo s Insectarium is the first animal exhibition house which combines the live exhibition and the educational expository function of museum. Besides the exhibition of insects alive, the expository facility is this house s main structure. Using a mode uniting exhibition and education, the house provides those who would like to learn about insects with the best outdoor educational place (Tang XinJie 2004). Its idea of planning, description of the building and the educational facility and program are introduced as follows. With the past, present and future of insects being the main idea, through the design of facilities, it trains visitors to observe and learn the following four aspects, which can be systematically described as follows (Wu Yi Xin 2001). (1) Insect s living environment Through simulating the design of ecology, it let visitors find out the ecological habits of insects. (2) The relation between insects and human being s life Through introducing the insect life circle from ancient times to the present, it let visitors understand the relation between insects and human life. (3) Insect's enlightenment on human life Through the simulation of insects body structure by some scientific and experiencing installation, it let visitors understand insects can inspire human life. (4) The discovery of insects Through the natural ecological experience in butterfly's park, it let visitors know and discover insects. 82

4 III The educational program of Insectarium Insectarium s educational activities which cooperates with the educational teaching system include the outdoor teaching program of The Intellectual One-day Trip, the holiday interpretation activity, the research camp for teachers, and parents and kids camp in winter and summer vacation. Among them The Intellectual One-day Trip was participated by greatest amount of people and was joined with the longest time. Its targeted objects are Taipei s fourth grade elementary school students of the year, its teaching purposes are listed as follows: (1) Practice the environmental education idea of bio-diversity through using the zoo s educational resources to cooperate with the outdoor teaching of the school. (2) Let teachers and students have a deeper understanding of animals through the thematic guide of narrator. (3) Train the elementary school teachers and students to love and care for animals, enhancing their will and ability to preserve the wild animals. IV The educational commentating system of Insectarium The educational commentating system of Insectarium is rich and colorful, including live animal exhibition, habitat environment representation, information panel and interactive teaching materials. Interactive teaching materials include facilities such as the driving model, interactive experiencing device, multimedia cartoon film and computer simulation game. Each exhibition item is listed in appendix one. V The research structure I) With students background attribute as the 83

5 independent variables, and the learning effect of using environmental education facility as the dependent variables, this research investigates whether the difference of such students background attributes as sex, place of residence, the times of visiting the zoo make a difference in students scoring on environmental knowledge and attitude in the part of the learning effect of using environmental education facility. II) With students background attribute as the independent variables, and the using conditions of environmental education facilities as the dependent variables, this research investigates whether the difference of such students background attributes as sex, place of residence, the times of visiting the zoo make a difference in the satisfactory degree and reaction of using facilities in the part of the using conditions of environmental education facilities. III) With the using conditions of environmental education facilities as the independent variables, and the learning effect of using environmental education facility as the dependent variables, this research investigates whether the difference in the satisfactory degree and reaction of using facilities in the part of the using conditions of environmental education facilities make a difference in students scoring on environmental knowledge and attitude in the part of the learning effect of using environmental education facility. VI Questionnaire respondent 1 The number of formal questionnaire and precursory testing sample As it is found by the nd semester Taipei fourth grade elementary school student outdoor visit and teaching statistics done by Taipei Zoo s Educational Department, the population has people, and the sampling inaccuracy between the sample and the population accepted by educational research institute is ranged from 1% to 5%. Therefore, on condition that the sampling inaccuracy is to be lower than 5%, and confidence interval is to be 95%, it is calculated through formula that this research needs at least 384 people for sampling. In consideration of the influence of the refusal of responding rate and the ineffective questionnaire rate, and also of increasing the credibility of the research result, this research random samples 1200 students from 35 classes as sample. 2 The semi-structure respondents The research s respondents are 3 people chosen from the volunteers, and the interview focuses on the using condition of environmental facilities and the learning effect. 84

6 VII Research tools There are two kinds of tools for collecting information, namely, the questionnaire of the using condition and learning effect of Taipei Zoo s Insectarium and the interview outline of the using condition and learning effect of Taipei Zoo s Insectarium. Conclusion and Suggestion I) Conclusion a) Characteristics of Students participating in Taipei Zoo Environmental Education i)facilities yielding more response are characterized by the adoption of multi-media, being able to operate practically, making direct contact with live animals, cooperation with school s course and topics close to daily life ii)facilities yielding a low percentage of response are characterized by the less employment of multimedia, lack of design of interaction, malfunction, or lack of complete illustration iii)the sex of students makes no influence on their response to and satisfactory degree on the facilities iv)the influence of students place of residence and times of visiting the zoo on their response to and satisfactory degree on the facilities b) The relationship of students background variance to their answering of the environmental education questions i)the environmental education questions understanding rate ranges from 87 to 73%, and the rate of answering correctly ranges from 88.9% to 68.9% ii)facilities with high correctly answered rate are also the more highly responded facilities iii) Sex of students makes no influence on the effect of learning environmental education knowledge iv)the influence of students place of residence and times of visiting the zoo on their effect of learning environmental attitude c) The relationship between students answering condition of questions concerning environmental attitude and the background variance i) The answering of questions concerning environmental attitude correlates with the result of element analysis ii) Sex of students makes no influence on the effect of learning environmental attitude iii)place of residence and times of visiting the zoo influence the effect of learning environmental attitude d) The relationship between students condition of using facilities and their learning effect i)the higher students response to facilities, the better their effect of learning 85

7 environmental knowledge and attitude ii)the higher the satisfactory degree, the better the students result of acquiring environmental knowledge and attitude II) Suggestions The suggestions below are directed at the abovementioned conclusions and discussions, and focus on two parts, that is, the design of environmental education facilities and the learning effect of employing environmental education facilities. a) The design of environmental education facilities i) To enhance facilities types of exhibitive media and interactive function ii)to promote the facilities link with school course or daily life experience iii) To supplement the illustration of facilities b) The learning effect in practicing the use of environmental education facilities i) To design various learning subjects of environmental education ii) To increase students opportunity to use facilities iii) To incorporate educators opinions into feedback in future planning References American Zoo and Aquarium Association (2001). Visitor Learning in Zoos and Aquariums. Retrieved January 1 st, 2004 from Australian Regional Association of Zoological Parks and Aquaria (2003). ARAZPA Education Policy. Retrieved January 1 st, 2004, from Bitgood, B. (1988). A comparison of formal and informal learning. (Technical Report No.88-10, Center for Social Design). Jacksonville: Jacksonville State University. Byrd, N.J. (1998). The Nature Center Handbook. Florida: Association of Nature Center Administrators. Cibolo Nature Center. Retrieved January 8, 2004, from Engleson, D.C.(1985). A guide to curriculum planning in environmental education. Wisconsin:Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. 86

8 Falk, J. H., & Dierking, L. D. (1992). The Museum Experience. Washington, D.C.: Whalesback Books. Falk, J.H. & Dierking, L. D. (2000). Learning from museums: visitor experiences and the making of meaning. Alta Mira Press. Gifford, R. (1997). Environmental psychology: Principles and practice. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Lofland, J. (1971). Analyzing social settings : a guide to qualitative observation and analysis. Belmont, Calif : Wadsworth Pub. Ham, S.H. (1992). Environmental Interpretation- A Practical Guide for People With Big Ideas and Small Budgest. Colorado: North American press. Hounshell, P. B. & Liggett, L. (1973). Assessing the effectiveness of environmental education. The Journal of Environmental Education, 5(2), Meredith J. (2000). Best Practices for Environmental Education Guidelines for Success. OHIO EE Palmer, J. A. (1998). Environmental Education in the 21st Century: Theory, practice, progress and promise. New York: Routledge. Palmer, J. A.& Kuru, J. (1998). Outdoor activities as a source of environmental responsibility. In Palmer,J. (Eds), Environmental Education in the 21 st Century: theory, practice, progress and promise(pp ). New York: Routledge. Parkin, D.R. (1998). Is outdoor education environmental education? Environmental education and information, 17(3),

9 Schlageter, J. N. (1980). Student cognition, attitudes, and action-orientation and teacher attitudes toward environmental education concepts at the seventh grade level. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Rochester, Location. Shomon, J. J. (1969). Nature Center: One Approach to Urban Environmental Education. Journal of Environmental Education, 1(2), 58. Van, L.K.,& Dunlap,R. (1981). Environmental concern:does it make a difference? how it is measured?environment and Behavior, 13(6), UNESCO(1977). Trends in Environmental Education. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO, (1977). The Worlds First Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education in Tbilisi. Columbus,OH: ERIC/SMEAC Information Reference Center. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED ) UNESCO(1980). Environmental Education in the Light of the Tbilisi Conference. Vendome: Presses Universitaires de France. Wiesenmayer, R.L., Murrin, M. and Tomera, A. (1984). Environmental education research related to issue awareness. In L.A. Iozzi (ed.), Monographs in Environmental Education and Environmental Studies. Columbus, Ohio: ERIC Clearing-House of Science Mathematics and Environmental Education. 88