Conceptual understanding and situational interest of middle-school-aged youth who participate in 4-day soundscape science camp

The purpose of this study was to investigate how participation in an inquiry-based environmental camp contributed to the conceptual understanding and triggered the situational interest of middle school-aged youth to a new field called “Soundscape Ecology.” The focus of this study was to understand how participants were affected cognitively and affectively by primary attributes of the immersive soundscape activities. We used descriptive interpretive approaches and several sources of data from drawing activities, pre-post questionnaires, interviews, observations, and participant artifacts. Our study showed that participants’ conceptual understanding as well as their interest were positively affected by variables such as direct interaction with nature, access to authentic technology, collaborative teamwork, and having choice and control. Our results suggest that scientific field work, combined with opportunities to engage youth in scientific education through the use of authentic tools, has the potential to ...