Environmental problems and solution proposals from the perspective of secondary school students

Abstract

The problems we face today such as climate change are a product of the society’s current outlook on the environment. Therefore, finding and implementing a solution requires a different outlook. One approach can be a systematic change in schooling children on these concepts. This paper presents the preliminary results of a project that focuses on creating awareness on the concepts of natural and built environment and their interaction with each other. The project involved 130 students, who have different socio-economic backgrounds, academic and art achievements, from six secondary schools. One part of the project involved the determination of the most important natural and built environmental problems and solution proposals according to participants in groups consisting of four–five participants in a group setting. During this study, they discussed their problems and proposals within a wider setting including other participants and supervising academicians. This chapter groups and discusses these problems and solution proposals. The results indicate that most of the children are aware of many problems such as environmental pollution, which was the most discussed topic. Yet, some important problems were not mentioned, and energy management was the least detailed and understood issue in the discussions.