Evaluating Environmental Awareness in Practice on the Concept of Nutrient Cycling Among Senior High School Students

¹ Basic education, TRACE College, Los Baños, Philippines
² University of the Philippines Los Baños
³ Institute of Chemistry, University of the Philippines Los Baños

^* Corresponding author: author@email.org

Abstract

Nutrient cycle, a concept that highlights the path that nutrients follow as they travel from the soil to the plant and other organisms, is an important concept for students to understand since it connects human actions to their effects on the environment. Understanding how the nutrient cycle works, especially in the context of lake water, is crucial in managing ecosystems effectively and mitigating the impacts of pollution, especially when it is because of anthropogenic causes. Therefore, there is a need to integrate environmental education into class lessons so that society can fully grasp the relationship between science and society. This study surveyed a total of 110 students from three different schools using simple random sampling. These schools near Laguna Lake of Los Baños, Laguna were randomly selected. Schools near the lake were targeted because they were relatively familiar with the topic. The survey assessed environmental awareness in three categories: knowledge, attitude, and practice, validated through Cronbach’s Alpha test. From the data collected the respondents were found to have low awareness in terms of knowledge (44.6%), high awareness in terms of attitude (83.6%), and a moderately low awareness in terms of practice (67.6%). This suggests a need to enhance student understanding of environmental concepts and issues to improve their practices. Thus, motivating them in adopting sustainable practices. Overall, the results from this study support the premise that there is a need to create teaching materials and activities to improve the practices of the students.