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Theses and Dissertations

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Browsing Theses and Dissertations by Author "Banning, James, committee member"

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    EnvironMentors: a mixed methods study of underrepresented youth pursuing environmentally focused STEM career paths
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Nedland, Brock, author; Bruyere, Brett, advisor; Teel, Tara, committee member; Banning, James, committee member
    This thesis presents two manuscripts and addresses ways in which the EnvironMentors national organization can improve in its mission to increase the numbers of underrepresented youth entering environmentally-focused science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This mixed methods study focused on specific aspects of the program including finding predictors to aid in recruiting efforts and discovering key aspects of participant's experiences that can assist in reaching the desired outcome of increasing the success of EnvironMentors' programming. Both manuscripts were guided by past research and theoretical framework. In the first paper, a regression analysis was conducted predicting/to predict student participants' interest in studying about the environment in college using three criteria: (1) enjoy nature (2) awareness of environmental issues, and (3) interest in studying science, technology, and engineering (STE) in college. Results from this research indicated that enjoy nature and interest in STE orientations can predict students' interest in studying about the environment in college. The second manuscript is a case study and comparison of two EnvironMentors chapters with similar programmatic activities and whose participants share similar demographics. Focus groups, and mid program evaluations were used and analyzed. A deductive analysis approach was utilized to look for the presence of pre-specified categories in the data. Results indicated that students from both chapters place emphasis on expectations, challenges and issues, interactions, and motivation that they experience in their mentor relationships.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Measuring an emotional connection to nature among children
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Silvas, Daniel Villalobos, author; Bruyere, Brett, advisor; Vaske, Jerry, committee member; Teel, Tara, committee member; Banning, James, committee member
    There is a growing concern from scientists and others that children today are losing their connection with nature. The degree of connectedness to nature (CN) has been hypothesized to influence a person's willingness to protect it. Unfortunately, tools used to measure CN are in their infancy and have mostly been developed for adult populations instead of children where most environmental education efforts are targeted. The purpose of this dissertation was to create a reliable and valid measure of a child's emotional connection with nature and study its influence on pro-environmental behaviors. This dissertation includes three studies presented as journal articles (chapters 2-4) and begins with presentation of the theory and frameworks used as the basis for the rest of the manuscript (chapter 1). Chapter two presents the development of a reliable and valid measure of an emotional connection to nature for children. Chapter three validates the structure of the emotional connection to nature scale (ECNS) and demonstrates its predictive potential on attitudes to protect nature (ATPN) and willingness to protect nature (WTPN). Chapter four presents findings from analyses of focus groups among children describing their connection to nature. Chapter five connects these studies by discussing the significance of this work, how this work can be applied and concludes with recommendations for future research.