“Growing Up Green: A Study Focusing on Environmental Attitudes, Knowledge and Focusing on Environmental Attitudes, Knowledge and Behaviors of Elementary Children.”

“Growing Up Green,” is a research based environmental education program that teaches children about recycling, energy conservation, and composting. This program was taught to fourth grade students at H.B. Williams Elementary School, in White House, Tennessee. The children were given a pre-test before the program and a post-test two weeks after the program. The pre and post-test was composed of three parts. The three parts tested their environmental attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors. The study found that most of the children already had positive attitudes toward the environment. While, their attitudes decreased minimally after the program, they still remained very positive. The children did well on the knowledge test. Their environmental knowledge increased after the “Growing Up Green,” program. While the program did not appear to have a substantive impact on their environmental behavior adoption, the children already participated in some behaviors like recycling and conserving energy before the program, and continued these behaviors after the program, too.