Effect of a school garden prototype on the level of environmental awareness of elementary and high school students.

Abstract

To combat environmental issues, it is required to adopt responsible behaviors and an adequate Environmental Awareness Level (EQL) that allows recognizing the commitment of a person to preserve his or her natural environment. Within this context, no program has been found in educational institutions in El Salto, Durango that allows knowing the EQL of their students. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of installing and operating a school orchard prototype on the EQL of the students. For this purpose, a “Pre-test” was applied to a sample of 150 elementary and high school students, composed of 29 items; nine correspond to the affective dimension; six to the cognitive dimension; nine to the conative dimension and five to the active dimension. Subsequently, the installation and operation of school orchard was carried out in five schools where vermicomposting, vegetable planting, water conservation and recycling of materials activities were practiced, ending with the application of a “Post-Test”. To know the effect of the orchard on the EQL, parametric and non-parametric statistics were employed at a significance level of α=0.05 and a reliability of 95%. The results showed that EQL before installing the orchard of 115 points classified as “good”; however, after installation and operation the orchard the score was 121 points, which indicates an increase of six points sufficient to reveal statistical differences between before and after. It was also found that the affective dimension increased seven points, the cognitive dimension five, the conative dimension three and the active dimension by nine points. It is concluded that a school orchard constitutes a good teaching tool to rise the EQL of students.