The article “Impacts of ecotourism in Rajiv Gandhi National Park (Nagarhole), Karnataka”  by Nichola Anastasia Ramchurjee aims to analyze how ecotourism has effected the wildlife and socio-economic situation of this area. This national park conserves it’s wildlife through organizations like Project Tiger Reserve (which protects their endangered tiger), but also ecotourism to conserve their biodiversity. By preserving biodiversity, it protects more than just the popular few species that receive funding and attention for conservation. To look at how ecotourism has been working in Rajiv Gandhi National Park,  this study surveyed visitors with questionnaires, and park officials with face to face interviews. These questionnaires analyzed the demographics of the tourists, as well as the activities at the park, and their thoughts on the management of the park.

Interviews with officials revealed issues between wildlife and humans. There are tribes within the national park that use methods that are harmful towards the conservation of wildlife, such as burns for agriculture. The park officials are looking for ways to work with the tribes in a way that protects their environment. One of the proposed ideas is relocating the tribes to an area where they will not seriously harm wildlife, nor will wildlife harm them.

The tourists revealed on their questionnaires that they mainly participated in hikes and viewing nature, while also ranking ‘learning about nature’ as a very important part of their experience. Tourists also responded that they were concerned with the litter, vegetation damage, and soil erosion in the park. By analyzing the results of the questionnaire, it showed that the park needs to put a larger effort into creating educational programs or displays.

The article concluded that the park officials and managers need to work closer with other people to conserve biodiversity. By working closer with the local tribes and improving ecotourism educational efforts,  Rajiv Gandhi National Park can promote a sustainable management plan that benefits the people and their environment.

Citation:

Ramchurjee, Nichola (2013). Impacts of ecotourism in Rajiv Gandhi National Park (Nagarhole), Karnataka. Environment, Development and Sustainability 15, (1),1517-1525. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10668-013-9449-x

“Examining Perceptions of School Safety Strategies, School Climate, and Violence” by Lesile Booren, Deborah handy, and Thomas Power aims to explore differences in perceptions of school climate/connection, school safety practices, and violence between students and teachers. This includes determining if school safety issues affect the perceived relevance of safety strategies. This article researches the perception of school safety, school connection, and school violence in faculty and students by using 184 student and 32 teacher surveys from one pacific northwest high school on the outskirts of a mid-to-large city. After this research was analyzed by describing and comparing student and teacher data, it was apparent that perceived school safety, connection, and violence vary between teachers and students. Teachers’ perception of connection and climate in the school was significantly higher than the students’ perception. This is then used to encourage safety programs and school climate programs to involve the students in determining appropriate safety measures rather than solely teachers.

This study was very interesting in terms of using it to determine how one can go about looking at students and teachers perception of violence and safety strategies in schools. However, it is even more interesting to see that this study could have been done using in-depth interviews, yet they opted for easily obtainable qualitative data using a five point scale, one being unimportant and five being very important. By using the scale and qualitative data they were able to easily and quickly compare the students and teachers perceptions.

Booren, L. M., D. J. Handy, and T. G. Power. “Examining Perceptions of School Safety Strategies, School Climate, and Violence.” Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice 9.2 (2010): 171-87.

Sul, I. D., Santos, I. R., Friedrich, A. C., Matthiensen, A., & Fillmann, G. (2011). Plastic pollution at a sea turtle conservation area in NE brazil: Contrasting developed and undeveloped beaches. Estuaries and Coasts, 34(4), 814-823. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12237-011-9392-8

http://0-search.proquest.com.books.redlands.edu/pqrl/docview/869817789/926B58CC9EE74EB5PQ/3?accountid=14729

The journal article that I found is titles, “Plastic Pollution at a Sea Turtle Conservation Area in NE Brazil: Contrasting Developed and Undeveloped Beaches,” by Juliana Assunção Ivar do Sul & Isaac R. Santos & Ana Cláudia Friedrich & Alexandre Matthiensen & Gilberto Fillmann.  This article is about how much beach debris were on developed and undeveloped sea turtle nesting beaches in Brazil.  Their prediction was that the plastic would be a major problem in coastal environments such as Brazil.  Their final and study question / hypothesis was that developed beaches are more contaminated by marine debris in the summer season and the types of items are directly related to local sources, such as tourism, and undeveloped beaches are less contaminated and the types of items are related to non-local sources, such as fishing and domestic activities.  They needed to collect the amount of pollution found on both types of beaches in order to compare them.  First they used region-wide sampling to characterize marine debris distribution patterns in the area.  Their next step was targeted sampling on the beaches.  After all their data was collected, they analyzed with tables and graphs to compare the pollution sources and to figure out which type of beach contained the higher amount of area covered in pollution.  Their final results was that domestic and fishing activities were accounted for 70% of debris on undeveloped beaches, and tourism activities accounted for 70% of debris on developed beaches.  I found this article helpful because I was planning on research numerous beaches and how much trash is on them.  Then figure out how many animals were affected by the pollution.  I wish this journal article went into further detail about how the debris affected the turtles.

The course blog for the University of Redlands EVST 399 / SOAN 300 course on Research Design and Methods has now reopened for the Spring 2016 Semester begins.  Students will post weekly about their literature searches, research proposals, etc.

The article “Quantifying the Presence of Written Materials and the Use of Outside Texts in Nature Centers for Environmental Education” was published in the Journal of Applied Environmental Education & Communication in September 2013. As its title suggests, the study and surrounding literature encompassed in the article focus on the availability of text books and written materials in environmental education. This is particularly interesting to me because many environmental education programs that focus on outdoor education tend to focus more on experiential education rather than using texts.
In this well-conducted study, researchers from Duke University sent questionnaires to representatives of more than 1800 nature centers nationwide. The survey asked questions about various aspects of the nature center programs, including those pertaining to location, setting, audience and goals of the nature center. The analysis focuses more on what kind of written materials are available, as well as how often outside texts are cited in those materials.
There was a thirty-one percent response rate for the questionnaires, meaning 563 individual responses were sent in to be evaluated. There were representatives from each state, leaving researchers with the following demographic: 17% from the Northeast, 34% from the Midwest, 34% from the South and 16% from the West.
The survey results concluded that 91% of nature centers carry brochures, 88% carried handouts, 85% carried books and 82% had permanent information displays. An analysis of variance concluded that region and setting (urban to rural) had to affect on what kind of resources each nature center possessed. 66% of those surveyed reported that outside sources were cited, referenced or quoted in the materials provided.
In conclusion, most nature centers provide some kind of written material for visitors, although a large amount of them (34%) do not reference, cite or quote outside materials. My personal theory is that providing some kind of textual material may help nature centers, and outdoor educators in general, reach out to a broader audience by catering to those with different learning styles. I believe it is imperative to incorporate as many outlets for learning as possible, as every person has a different preference for how to learn.

The article opens up by introducing Environmental Education as a subject. It explains the perceived importance of environmental education and the influence of a teacher’s environmental views on their students’ learning.
This article follows a cohort of sixth grade teachers in Nova Scotia who instruct environmental education. The teachers discuss their views on environmental education and its challenges. They are evaluated through interviews and a thematic analysis test. The sample size was significantly smaller than intended, however the goal of the study was to gain insight to relevant, consistent and transferrable issues that come with teaching environmental education, regardless of study population or grade level. The interviews with teachers were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using a thematic analysis approach.
The analysis made apparent four themes: key challenges to teaching environmental education, how environmental education is integrated into the curriculum, professional and personal environmental education values, and general understanding of environmental education.
Key challenges in teaching environmental education fell into categories of resources, time, outcome, other, knowledge and finances, in the order of perceived relevance. Having insufficient resources was the biggest obstacle for these teachers by far.
As far as integrating environmental education into the curriculum, teachers tended to agree that it should begin as early as kindergarten (which supports a good deal of literature regarding the subject) as well as integrated with other studies such as social science and social science.
The study exemplified that the teachers held high-ranked values of the importance of the environment and educating children properly regarding the world around them.
The study surprisingly found that there was a weak general understanding of environmental education among the teachers. When asked to describe it, the teachers mainly emphasized recycling, which is a very small, over-traditionalized part of environmentalism.
This article poses many relevant questions: Does this point to the idea of specialized teacher trainings on the environment? How can more money be garnered for more environmental education resources? Is it time for education reform regarding environmental curriculum? It is clear that if this study in any way mirrors modern-day teachers, change for environmental education is definitely in order.
Online link to article:
http://0-ejournals.ebsco.com.books.redlands.edu/Direct.asp?AccessToken=7DRTDT3B3ODFMMMNTI5NNRX5XLRLB3L9JN&Show=Object

Who Researched:
Sean T. Carroll, Robert H. Riffenburgh, Timothy A. Roberts, Elizabeth B. Myhre
When Researched:
Received for publication July 9, 2001
Accepted January 8, 2002
Published June 1, 2002
Research Methods Used:
-Survey- 58 questions based on the 1997 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Survey. These surveys were distributed to all adolescent beneficiaries that came to the Adolescent Clinic.
The survey included questions regarding eating behavior, violence, drug abuse, sexual behavior, suicide, tattoos and body piercings.
What Was Found:
Adolescents with tattoos and body piercings were found to be more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviors (disordered eating behavior, gateway drug use, hard drug use, sexual activity and suicide) than those without either.
Specifically:
–Males having tattoos and females having body piercings tended to be more violent.
–Gateway drug use was associated with both tattoos and body piercings of both sexes.
–Hard drug use was associated with the number of body piercings.
–Suicide was associated with both sexes getting tattoos and body piercings at a younger age; however, it was more strongly associated with females having tattoos.
–Overall tattoos and body piercings were more common among females than males.
Body modifications can be an indication of risk-taking behaviors in adolescents. As seen above, risk-taking behaviors (as defined by the CDC) include eating disorders, gateway drug use, hard drug use, sexual activity, violence and suicide. If an adolescent is seen to have tattoos and body piercings at a young age, preventative measures (e.g. counseling) can be taken to decrease the chance of further risk-taking behaviors.