Two strands of research guide the EARTH-Utah program: environmental education policy, and environmental psychology.

After 10 years of research, the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation (NEETF) concluded that the goal of environmental education should be “environmental literacy,” a comprehensive understanding that encompasses behaviors and choices, knowledge of specific issues, patterns of thinking, decision-making strategies, beliefs, values, and emotions (1). Promoting environmental literacy is the primary goal of EARTH-Utah.

Research in environmental psychology has confirmed these findings (2, 3), emphasizing that feelings, assumptions, and basic self-concept may be more important to environmental responsibility than details about environmental issues or awareness of options for mitigating impact (4). This is in stark contrast to the way most EE programs are organized. In addition, environmental psychology has shown that providing direct experience in the outdoors is perhaps the most important means of promoting a sense of stewardship and care (5).

These conclusions are unsurprising; an effective program for environmental education will be multi-faceted and interdisciplinary, and will focus on the complexities of the relationship between humans and the environment in addition to simple facts and figures. This is precisely the program that EARTH-Utah offers. Findings in both of these fields are extremely recent, which means that the EARTH-Utah approach to environmental education is cutting-edge and totally unique!

1 - Coyle, K. (2005) with the National Environmental Education & Training Foundation (NEETF). Environmental Literacy in America: What Ten Years of NEETF/Roper Research and Related Studies Say About Environmental Literacy in the U.S. Washington, D.C., NEETF.

2 - Rothfeder, R., Worthy, K., & Jennings, K. (2008). Worldview, connectedness to nature, and environmental behavior. Pre-publication.

3 - Mayer, F. S., Frantz, C. M., Norton, C., & Rock, M. (2005). There is no ‘I’ in nature: The influence of self awareness on connectedness to nature. Journal of Environmental Psychology 24, 427-436.

4 - Pooley, J. A., & O’Coonor, M. (2000). Environmental education and attitudes. Environment and Behavior 32, 711-723.