Applied Scientific Research and Action in Experiential Learning: The Indian River Lagoon, Florida

This month-long exercise in place-based education was used to foster environmental science learning and encourage active environmental citizens at the university level (Schild R, J Environ Educ 47(1), 19–34, 2016) under the larger umbrella of Kolb’s experiential learning model (1984). The preparatory material and applied scientific research held “in place”, aided in situating learning in the context of real-world problems to provide clarity and strengthen Kolb’s “concrete experience” (Morris, 2020). Place is important and, in this case, emphasizes the connectedness between local environmental issues and larger global human impacts. This experience was provided to majors as part of the Environmental Science and Environmental Engineering programs’ curriculum via an Oceanography course. Other discipline’s majors were also welcome. The learning experience detailed in this chapter provides a socio-spatial-temporal experience, in reality. It is housed within experiential learning theory but largely prescriptive and detailed. The aim is to provide educators a student-led experience that will achieve learner choice and autonomy, environmental and social justice awareness, community connections, academic achievement, critical thinking, real-world problem-solving solutions, hands-on participant action with stakeholders, reflection, and transformation. The first step was for students to become connected with nature and stewards of a particular habitat or species of their choosing. The study area or “place” was within the Indian River Lagoon of Florida’s eastern coast, the most biodiverse estuary in North America covering two climate zones and 156 miles from Ponce Inlet to Jupiter Inlet (Florida State Parks, 2023). This study area is a microcosm of similar coastal environments around the world. Improvement to this western educational model and experience can be strengthened in the future by incorporating indigenous knowledge that has always been land-centered and known as land-based education (Kimmerer, 2012; Bowra et al., 2021).