Identifying and Describing the Motivations of High School Students Relative to Entering the Environmental Workforce
Timeline
February 1, 2024 to January 31, 2026Description
The project will examine existing educational interventions and explore the motivations of high school students to pursue or not pursue degree programs focused on the environment, as well as describe the factors that influenced current members of the environmental workforce in the Lake Champlain Basin to pursue their careers. Expected outcomes for high school students include increased understanding of watershed science in the Lake Champlain Basin via the guest speaker series; increased understanding of their personal impacts on Lake Champlain through teacher workshops and educational interventions; and increased ability to participate in natural resource decision-making in the Lake Champlain Basin. Further, high school students will experience watershed science in their summer courses, learn about a range of career options in watershed science, and participate in inquiry projects related to Lake Champlain. Intended beneficiaries include 400 high school students, directly, and the environmental workforce in the longer term.
This research is building upon Lake Champlain Sea Grant's 2022 research project, Investigating Interventions to Increase Environmental Literacy Among K-12 Teachers and Students.