Effectiveness of a Pop-Up Story-Based Program for Developing Environmental Awareness and Sustainability Concepts among First-Grade Elementary Students

Abstract

The study aims to assess the effectiveness of a pop-up story-based program in fostering environmental awareness and sustainability among first-grade elementary students. Using a quasi-experimental design, the study included experimental and control groups, each consisting of 56 students, randomly assigned to two groups: 28 in the experimental group and 28 in the control group. The experimental group participated in a 12-session program on environmental awareness and sustainability. After confirming the test's validity, reliability, and appropriate difficulty and discrimination indices, both groups took a pictorial test covering four key concepts: water and air pollution, recycling, sustainable agriculture, and manufacturing. The results showed statistically significant differences at the 0.05 level between the post-test scores of the control and experimental groups regarding environmental awareness and sustainability concepts, in favor of the experimental group. This demonstrates the effectiveness of the pop-up story-based program in enhancing environmental awareness and sustainability concepts among first-grade students. The study recommends integrating environmental awareness and sustainability topics into teacher training programs at education colleges.