What are students' mental models of the environment? In what ways, if any, do students' mental models vary by grade level or community setting? These two questions guided the research reported in this article. The Environments Task was administered to students from 25 different teacher-classrooms. The student responses were first inductively analyzed in order to identify students' mental models of the environment. The second phase of analysis involved the statistical testing of the identified mental models. From this analysis four mental models emerged: Model 1, the environment as a place where animals/plants live-a natural place; Model 2, the environment as a place that supports life; Model 3, the environment as a place impacted or modified by human activity; and Model 4, the environment as a place where animals, plants, and humans live. The dominant mental model was Mental Model 1. Yet, a greater frequency of urban students than suburban and rural students held Mental Model 3. The implications to environmental science education are explored. ß
ABSTRACT:The purpose of this study was to investigate students' conceptions about watersheds. Specifically: (1) What are students' conceptions of a watershed? and (2) In what ways might students' conceptions vary by grade level and community setting? This study was descriptive in nature and reflected a cross-age design involving the collection of qualitative data from 915 students from the Midwest, United States. These qualitative data were analyzed for their content in an inductive manner, identifying student's conceptions. This content analysis was followed with a statistical analysis to determine the significance in the frequency of the identified student conceptions. Four categories emerged that reflected these students' conceptions. Based on these findings, we make curricular recommendations that build on the students' conceptions, the watershed concept, and the National Research
Objective: A great deal of scholarly work has examined the way that physical, social and cultural environments relate to children's health behaviour, particularly with respect to diet and exercise. While this work is critical, little research attempts to incorporate the views and perspectives of children themselves using visual methodologies. Specifically, we examine: (1) how children conceptualize play;(2) what aspects of play are important to children; and (3) the role that play assumes in guiding children's activity patterns. Setting: Elementary school classrooms from third and fifth grade were sampled in a low-income, largely Latino/a part of southwest Denver, United States of America (USA), in late spring of 2010. Design: A qualitative study in which each child participated in a 'photo voice' survey and an in-class focus group. Method: The authors employed visual methodologies to explore how children conceptualized play. Photo voice surveys were administered in English and Spanish. After analysis of the photo voice surveys, children were invited to discuss their photos and drawings in small focus groups conducted in the classroom. All children who completed the survey participated in the focus groups. Results: Children in this study group conceptualized play largely in unstructured form. Family and school were important themes to emerge from the analysis of the data. Conclusion: Visual methods can clarify social-cultural dimensions of interactions between people and places, which can serve to inform research on health behaviours from children's perspectives. Such methodologies are particularly important for research that focuses on the construction of physical environments for children.
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