Not only do National Parks promote pro-environmental behavior through its aesthetic appeal and overall feeling of happiness they provide to visitors, they also provide an avenue for visitors to be educated on environmental issues. National Parks are situated in the heart of nature and allow for people to directly gain insight into the environmental issues facing us at the present moment.
At every National Park, visitors have the ability to participate in interpretive tours through the park landscape and learn about the environment and the history of the ecosystems. Barry Mackintosh, environmental historian for the NPS, explains the function of interpretative programs.
A study done at the Great Smoky Mountain National Park found that 60% of visitors who participated in interpretative programs indicated that their awareness of environmental issues increased.
Also, Doug Knapp, associate professor of Indiana University found that because of the experiential component inherently associated with interpretive programs, visitors retained information gained from these programs for over a year. While that doesn't seem like a long period of time, if you consider how long you retain information you learn in school, it is. When was the last time you retained all the information you studied after you took a test? Yeah...all that information probably got lost right after you walked out of the test. These interpretation programs are much more effective in educating visitors than learning about environmental issues in a traditional school type setting because their approach engages visitors with the environmental surrounding. His research also concluded that visitors continued to experience empathy toward the environment years after they participated in a National Park program.
Not only is environmental education important in promoting environmental conservation efforts (for we all need to know about why the environment requires conservation to actually try and conserve it) but Paivi Tikka, Markku Kuitunen and Salla Tynys found that the more educated we are, the more likely we are to have a positive attitude toward the environment and actually want to conserve it.
So then, with these benefits, can we still justify going to these parks when are travel to and existence at these parks are risking its survival?
At every National Park, visitors have the ability to participate in interpretive tours through the park landscape and learn about the environment and the history of the ecosystems. Barry Mackintosh, environmental historian for the NPS, explains the function of interpretative programs.
"Our function lies in the inspirational enthusiasm which we can develop among our visitors--an enthusiasm based upon a sympathetic interpretation of the main things that the parks represent, whether these be the wonder of animate things living in natural communities, or the story of creation as written in the rocks, or the history of forgotten races as recorded by their picturesque dwellings"So, how effective are these interpretive programs in educating visitors?
A study done at the Great Smoky Mountain National Park found that 60% of visitors who participated in interpretative programs indicated that their awareness of environmental issues increased.
Also, Doug Knapp, associate professor of Indiana University found that because of the experiential component inherently associated with interpretive programs, visitors retained information gained from these programs for over a year. While that doesn't seem like a long period of time, if you consider how long you retain information you learn in school, it is. When was the last time you retained all the information you studied after you took a test? Yeah...all that information probably got lost right after you walked out of the test. These interpretation programs are much more effective in educating visitors than learning about environmental issues in a traditional school type setting because their approach engages visitors with the environmental surrounding. His research also concluded that visitors continued to experience empathy toward the environment years after they participated in a National Park program.
Not only is environmental education important in promoting environmental conservation efforts (for we all need to know about why the environment requires conservation to actually try and conserve it) but Paivi Tikka, Markku Kuitunen and Salla Tynys found that the more educated we are, the more likely we are to have a positive attitude toward the environment and actually want to conserve it.
So then, with these benefits, can we still justify going to these parks when are travel to and existence at these parks are risking its survival?
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