How collaborative partnerships can teach and foster ecological restoration

Background/Question/Methods

The purpose of this study is to examine land stewardship as a form of service learning that can be employed to encourage students to learn scientific concepts of ecological restoration. A goal is to provide model guidelines for land restoration managers and educators in planning successful land stewardship partnerships. Successful land stewardship partnerships meet needs of ecological restoration, goals of restoration institutions and schools practicing ecological restoration, and students’ learning outcomes. As a form of service learning, land stewardship presents opportunities for primary and secondary students to acquire hands-on experiences practicing natural lands management through which they can learn ecological restoration concepts.

Several primary and secondary schools in northeast Ohio have service learning programs. An analysis of these collaborations established by northeast Ohio schools with local institutions that practice ecological restoration is this study’s data. This project surveys individuals based at the institutions that practice land management and individuals based at local schools who coordinate partnership efforts and students’ service learning. The survey evaluates the collaborations including stated goals and outcomes of the projects. After evaluating validity, reliability, and normal distribution, this study will undertake, as appropriate, ordinary least squares regressions and other statistical analyses of survey data.  

Results/Conclusions

Preliminary results indicate that stronger commitment to a project’s goals lead to superior outcomes for ecological restoration and student understanding of scientific concepts. Service learning experiences typically strengthen students’ comprehension of scientific concepts. Students who participate in all aspects of ecological restoration tend to comprehend objectives of land management and ecological restoration. Close collaboration of teacher-partners and students lead to successful experiences. Follow-up work that includes time for reflection and planning for future work are critical to a successful project.

This paper formulates a research agenda for land stewardship as a form of service learning that is designed to encourage students to learn about scientific concepts of ecological restoration. This paper demonstrates that commitment to ecological restoration goals can benefit restoration institutions, schools, and students. This study is a step toward producing guidelines for successful partnerships between land restoration institutions and students. Land-management projects based on service learning can provide valuable ecological restoration while offering scientific educational experiences to students.