An Assessment of Nature Camp as part of ESD in HEIs: The case study of De la Salle Philippines

An Assessment of Nature Camp as part of ESD in HEIs: The case study of De la Salle Philippines Jethro J. Arsenio Jodylyn M. Quijano-Arsenio

Background of the Study • For the past five years the De La Salle Philippines (DLSP) through the Lasallian Institute for the Environment (LIFE) and the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), has sponsored an annual Ecology Camp or Ecocamp . • 8 of the 17 affiliated schools have been sending Ecocamp participants.

Significance of the Study • Not only to the school administrators of De La Salle Philippines but for other HEIs which are planning to incorporate environmental awareness in their curriculum. • School administrators of these participating campuses will have basis in crafting school policies that would further strengthen environmental awareness and concerns. • The results of this study are very interesting since environmental issues are important for most young people

Literature Review • According to Alkin (2004 as cited in Leeuw & Furubo, 2008) the conduct of evaluation will give four benefits. First, it produces relevant knowledge that would help make better decisions. Second, it provides assurance and make things under control. Third, it produces information that confirms rather than questions policies and lastly, it breeds evaluation system. • The ultimate goal of environmental education whether it is formal or non-formal is to create awareness (Shobeiri, Omidvar and Prahallada, 2007) and this can be done by employing different tactics such as nature camps and seminars (Rider, 2005, as cited in Özden, 2008).

Research Methodology

Sample • Target population was the students and teachers/facilitators who participated in the four-day Ecocamp 2009 in De la Salle Canlubang (DLS-C), Canlubang, Laguna last May 5-8, 2009. • A total of 50 students and 10 facilitators attended and received the questionnaire but retrieval rate was 88% only.

Measures • The first part of the questionnaire consisted of the profile of the respondents. • The second part of the questionnaire measured the level of awareness of students in environmental principles and ecological concepts. • The third part of the questionnaire asked the students and facilitators about their lifestyle affecting plants, animals and other life forms including other ecosystem components such as air, land, water, and energy. • The last part of the questionnaire used five point Likert scale to ask students’ over-all satisfaction of the four days nature camp.

Results and Discussions

Table 1: Profile of the Ecocamp Participants and Facilitators

Campus. De La Salle University-Dasmariñas has the highest number of student participants with 20.45%. The campus with the least number of student participants came from University of St. La Salle in Bacolod due to its remoteness from the camp venue. • Gender. Female facilitators was overrepresented (70 %) with male facilitators comprising 30% only.

Attendance in environmental camp. Majority of the students (88.64%) attended the environmental camp for the first time. Half of the facilitators have already experienced attending nature camp. • Membership in environmental organization. Three quarters of the students are not members of any environmental organization.

Table 1: Profile of the Ecocamp Participants and Facilitators

Sources of information. Results show that the top sources of information among students are books, tv, news and media with 33.06%. On the other hand, facilitators’ main source of information is outdoor experiences (29.63%). • Age. The mean age is 18.70. Fifty percent of the facilitators in the camp are less than 30 years old.

Table 2: Comparison of the Students and Facilitators’ Lifestyles towards Different Dimensions

The highest average weighted mean shown for the students is in energy (4.09) followed by their lifestyle affecting air (3.88), plants, animals & other forms (3.78), and lastly, land (3.42). • The facilitators’ lifestyle always demonstrates concern to the environment. The average weighted mean in land (4.34), water (4.36) and energy (4.44) falls within the bracket of 4.20-5.

Table 3: ANOVA Results of the Overall Lifestyles of Students as to Gender, First-timer in Camp and Membership in Environmental Organization

According to the results of one-way ANOVA in Table 3, friendly lifestyles towards plants, air, land, water, and energy have no significant difference between male and female, those who are first-time and not to attend nature camp, and those who are members and non-members of environmental organizations.

Table 4: Students’ Awareness of Basic Environmental Principles and Ecological Concepts

Table 4: Students’Awareness of Basic Environmental Principles and Ecological Concepts

Table 4: Students’ Awareness of Basic Environmental Principles and Ecological Concepts

The Cronbach alpha was computed as .5477 • Above 75% of them answered correctly nine out of 15 questions. These are question numbers 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13 and 15. • Less than 50% of the total number of respondents answered correctly questions number 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 14.

TABLE 5: Results of Evaluation on Over-all Organization ofEcocamp

It depicts the satisfaction rating of camp participants in the overall aspects of the Ecocamp. Except the provision of enough facilities like bathroom and use of their free time. • Notably, they gave the highest rating (4.61) to the facilitators whom they found very helpful and always available.

Recommendations

1. There must be at least one environmental organization in the campus. 2. Selection criteria be developed for the Ecocamp participants. 3. Exposure to different places through field trips and investigatory project. 4. Continuous acquisition of latest environmental science books and subscription to international and local journals and magazines.

5. The people behind Ecocamp should not only be knowledgeable about environmental principles and problems but they must be the ones who enjoy working with students because they could serve as their mentors and inspirations. 6. For further study, it is recommended that pretest and posttest be conducted among Ecocampparticipants to better gauge the input of Ecocamp to them.

An Assessment of Nature Camp as part of ESD in HEIs: The case study of De la Salle Philippines