The importance of environmental education in students: analyzing the transition from middle to high school in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico

Resumen

Objective: A poll on first-semester high school students (n = 246) took place at Nuevo
Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, to find out if they received environmental education as an
extracurricular class during middle school and how this training could influence their
perceptions and positions on environmental issues.
Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire that contained aspects regard water
culture, recycling, species care and transportation, as well as general knowledge of the
environment and its regulations, was applied to students. The SPSS statistical software was
used to categorize two groups: students who received extracurricular environmental
education and those who did not. Subsequently, the non-parametric Mann Whitney tests
were performed on the data.
Results: Out of the total number of participants, 167 said they had received extracurricular
environmental education in middle school. The other 79 participants reported not to have
done so. Students who received more environmental education in middle school exhibit a
better attitude regard water management.

Limitations of the study/implications: To interpret the results, it is necessary to consider
that the study took place only in the city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas and that a
convenience sampling was used.
Findings / Conclusions: There are still students that do not receive enough environmental
education. We conclude that it is important to intensify efforts to change this situation, as
environmental training has shown to positively influence the attitudes of students who
received it.