SYMP 24-2
The California Environmental Legacy Project: A multiplatform educational media initiative to enhance understanding of environmental change
Public understanding of the causes and consequences of environmental change is lacking. At the same time, scientists and educators often do not have sufficient training, pedagogical expertise, and/or media support to effectively communicate with public audiences about complex and multi-scale ecological phenomena. The California Environmental Legacy Project is a collaborative effort among scientists, educators, and media professionals to build a new model of educational media production that will enhance public understanding about environmental change. Nearly complete, the Legacy Project's multiplatform educational media package includes 1) Becoming California, a two-hour public television documentary on environmental change in California; 2) visitor center films and video podcasts produced for five state and national parks in California; and 3) an integrated web/mobile interface (calegacy.org) that delivers the project’s educational media on multiple devices and through a variety of social and professional networks. Intended audiences of the project’s media include public television viewers, visitors to California state and national parks, users of online educational resources, and K-12 and university students and teachers. The project’s professional audience includes park interpretive staff, scientists, teachers, and media professionals. STEM content includes geology, earth science, evolution, biodiversity, and climate change. Through audience evaluation and research, the Legacy Project is testing a new collaborative model of multiplatform media production and delivery that builds capacity, impacts audiences in new ways and advances understanding of how informal and formal audiences learn about science.
Results/Conclusions
Audience research conducted on California residents, public television viewers and informal science educators informed development of the project’s media. Results of surveys indicated that most Californians do not understand the relationship between human activities and environmental change. Nor do they feel connected to nature. Results also revealed that short educational videos, K-12 standards-compliant resources, and professional development were most desired by informal science educators but that lack of funding, equipment budgets, and time were barriers to their use. Results from PBS viewers suggested that a handful of priorities could present challenges to attracting these viewers, such as a mistrust of science and political motives for producing nature documentaries. By understanding these priorities, environmental educators may be able to shape programming and promotion to broaden and diversify audiences for nature documentaries. Research will also examine how the project’s integrated media package can enhance understanding of different but interconnected scales of environmental change as well as the degree to which new digital media can be used to inspire audiences to connect with nature.