Past Members

Since childhood, Adam has always had a passion for being outside. After learning about the growing disconnection between youth and the outdoors during his undergraduate degree at Mount Allison, Adam began to explore solutions that could help address this complex challenge. This interest led Adam to the Master's of Environmental Studies program and the Education for Sustainability Research Group at Dalhousie University. During his time with the Research Group, Adam worked to understand how summer camp programs benefit youth by providing opportunities for outdoor and environmental learning. Adam asked campers at summer camp near Halifax to complete a pre-camp and post-camp survey to understand how the program contributed to their learning across three learning domains: cognitive (knowledge), affective (feelings, attitudes), and behavioural. Parents were also interviewed 2-3 months after the program to understand how the camp contributed to longer-term environmental learning and behaviours among these youth. Results showed that the camp program was effective in increasing levels of environmental knowledge, motivated children to spent more time outdoors, and influenced both individual and family-level pro-environmental behaviours. Ultimately, this research showed that environmental education summer camps can be effective in not only providing children with space and time to be outdoors, but can serve as a tool to increase feelings of care and compassion for the natural world. Learn more by watching a video on this research developed by Adam as part of the annual   SSHRC Storytellers Competition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_v_OnNl6Bw

Since completing his Master's in Fall 2016, Adam has relocated back to Sackville, New Brunswick where he works for Nature NB on education, conservation, and climate change adaption projects across the province. Adam has also continued his work with the Education for Sustainability Research Group as a Research Associate in the Environmental Science Department at Dalhousie University. You can get in touch with Adam by emailing him at adam.cheeseman@dal.ca.

Ms. Shauna Doll holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) with a double major degree in Environment, Sustainability and Society, and English, and a Master of Resource and Environmental Management (MREM) degree from the School for Resource and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University. She is interested in climate change literacy and how intersections between science and art can influence human behaviour. Her work with Dr. Tarah Wright employed a thematic analysis to determine dominant themes within “climate change art”. Exploring how artists are internalizing the realities of climate change, and how these expressions might be interpreted by consumers of said art, the study aimed to ascertain how art might be used as a vehicle for influencing behaviour change.

Ms. Doll is currently working on assessing the adaptive capacity of female farmers in climactically vulnerable regions of Cambodia. Her other work exists within the realm environmental management, with a focus on coastal and forest conservation, biodiversity protection and environmental education in the Province of Nova Scotia.

While working with the EfS Research Group for my Master of Environmental Studies, I used a mixed methods approach to investigate the conceptualizations of 28 student leaders (French and English students’ unions’ presidents or executives) from universities across Canada. Through semi-structured Skype and telephone interviews, I learned about their conceptualizations (how they understood) of “sustainability” and “sustainability in higher education” (SHE), as well as perceived barriers and enablers to increasing sustainability at Canadian universities. I also examined whether they felt that the commercialization of higher education affected sustainability in higher education. I had the opportunity to present my results at academic conferences and participate in academic publication processes.

In addition to my thesis research, I had the chance to work with Dr. Wright through co-authoring an article for an international report on SHE (GUNI HEITW4), writing multiple grant applications and brainstorming on other initiatives like her Goggles Tour.

After working as a freelance research associate and project manager in multiple fields, I now work in administrative roles with the Faculty of Computer Science at Dalhousie University and the IWK Health Centre. I also continue to offer freelance research and not-for-profit support as I love being involved in knowledge creation and translation.

Megan studied Environmental Science and Sustainability at Dalhousie University. Growing up outdoors, and finding a love for bringing friends along with her, Megan has developed a passion for communicating science and engaging people with the outdoors. In high school she was engaged in theatre and singing, which connected her to the research of how arts can shift people’s worldviews towards the environment. Megan has worked on the EcoArt storymap as an intern and continued as a staff member. She conducted interviews with EcoArtists around the world to support the development of the storymap, and has been helping to fill it with wonderful EcoArt projects since then.

Emily Lannigan (she/her) is in her final year of study completing a Honours in Environmental Science with a minor in Political Science. Emily will be joining the Education for Sustainability Research Group to study the comparison of bioaffinity amongst pre-school children in nature-emersed schools in the Bahamas and Canada. She is interested in environmental education, specifically among different locations and cultures. Emily’s interest in this area of study began through her experience volunteering at an elementary school in the Amazon region of Ecuador. Emily also had the opportunity to volunteer at a dance studio where she taught children ballet and other studies of dance. It was there that Emily witnessed first-hand different forms of experiential learning in childhood. This led to Emily’s passion for both the environment and childhood education; and their relationship in creating pro-environmental attitudes as adults. Through this honours project, Emily will engage in data collection throughout the summer using a games testing tool to assess levels of bioaffinity in the pre-school aged children. Through analyzing bioaffinity levels, a pathway can be created to enhance greater levels of bioaffinity in future generations.

Emily is passionate in her endeavour to communicate environmental issues through education to both adults and children. Last year, Emily participated in an internship at Garrison Brewing in Halifax completing an environmental impact assessment on waste diversion and created tactics to educate employees. She is currently serving her second year as the Treasurer of the Environmental Programs Student Society at the Dalhousie Student Union. In her spare time, you can often find Emily exploring the outdoors or practising yoga.  

After working and volunteering in sustainability at her undergraduate campus, Lauri was inspired to study sustainability in higher education at the graduate level. While completing her Master's in Environmental Studies in the School for Resource and Environmental Studies, at Dalhousie University under the direction of Dr. Tarah Wright, Lauri joined the Sustainability & Education Policy Network (SEPN). This pan-Canadian research network brought together academic researchers and non-profit organizations working to improve and mobilize sustainability in the Canadian education system. By joining the network as a student researcher, Lauri had the opportunity to learn from more experienced researchers, as well as practitioners with hands-on experience in sustainability education.

Lauri contributed to the network’s research agenda by investigating the content of sustainability policy and plan documents from a sample of 21 universities and colleges that had completed the Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment and Reporting System (STARS).  She conducted a document analysis to understand 1) how the policies conceptualize sustainability and a sustainable campus; 2) the sustainability goals outlined in the policies and plans; and 3) if the plans employed best practices of plan creation and design. Published in two journal articles and research briefs, this research helped to lay the ground work for the network’s investigation of sustainability education, as well as supporting sustainability practitioners seeking to create or update their sustainability policies and plans.

Following her degree, Lauri used the research skills and the knowledge of sustainability policy and planning developed during her Master’s degree to enter the field of sustainability consulting. In Ottawa, she worked for a boutique firm that supported the development of sustainability policy and strategic planning in the government, non-profit, and private sectors across Canada. Lauri has now transitioned into government, and works to support good policy design and program implementation in integrated catchment management in the State of Victoria, Australia.

If you would like to learn more about Lauri’s experience working with Dr. Wright in the Education for Sustainability Research Group, you can contact her through Linked In.

Bethany is entering her fourth year of a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance double majoring in Environmental Studies at York University. Through the Environmental Studies Program, Bethany is completing the Cultural and Artistic Practice Certificate. This program is allowing Bethany to fuse together her two passions for the Arts and the Environment. The certificate has a focus on using community and social justice art to bring people together for environmental issues. Bethany has created multiple social justice-themed choreographic works through University and High School. Bethany is eager to be working with the Education for Sustainability Research Group this summer, analyzing works from Climate Change Action Theatre in relation to hope.

Work at Dal:
Her focus was on exploring how stakeholders understood sustainability and their ability to implement sustainability practices. Specifically, she interviewed university presidents as part of a larger body of research studying all levels of stakeholders within academic institutions. She also focused on the framing of sustainability policy, change management, and the neoliberal underpinnings that found their way into education policy, authoring papers on all three subjects. 

Current work:
Rebecca runs her own consulting agency, working with progressive organizations across the country to create strategic digital messaging for campaigns and organizing. Clients include the Vancouver Mayor's Office, BCNDP, Alberta Federation of Labour, Telus's StoryHive, Mountain Equipment Co-op, and the Georgia Strait Alliance. She uses her experience from Dalhousie in research methods and stakeholder relationships to create data-driven communications work that puts people first. By working on a political campaign with a three month old, her daughter Zuzana was given the monicker "business baby" and now frequently appears at conferences and training sessions along with mom.

Dr. Tarah Wright served as the supervisor for the graduate thesis portion of my Master of Environmental Studies degree at Dalhousie University.  I worked with Dr. Wright from 2015 through to March of 2018 and was a part of the Education for Sustainability Research Group.  During my time working with Dr. Wright I conducted research on the inclusion of the seven essential Ocean Literacy Principles within Nova Scotia high school science curriculum.  The thesis was divided into two main components; examining the quantity of ocean concepts included with Nova Scotia’s high school science curriculum and identifying the challenges and barriers to the implementation of ocean concepts into the classroom as noted by teachers from the Halifax Regional School Board.

To achieve the first objective of the study I conducted a content analysis of all science courses offered at the high school level.  In total I examined eleven science curriculum documents.  The curriculum outcomes were analysed to determine the level of inclusion of the Ocean Literacy Principles.  From this study it was concluded that in general ocean concepts are lacking from the overall high school science curriculum.  Of the eleven curriculum documents analysed, only three were found to include references to the Ocean Literacy Principles.  From this study recommendations were made on how to improve the inclusion of these Principles in additional courses and areas of study.  The second objective of this study was achieved through semi-structured interviews with high school science teachers from the Halifax Regional School Board.  Seventeen teachers were interviewed, and the interviews were analysed to determine central themes.  My analysis revealed four common challenges and barriers indicated by teachers, which included; curriculum outcomes, time, access to resources, and background knowledge of ocean concepts.  From this research recommendations were made to include ocean education as a key component for pre-service teachers in Nova Scotia and on how to improve access to resources for teachers.

Currently I am a high school science teacher with the Halifax Regional Education Center.  In addition, I am working with the International Oceans Institute on developing a plan to include ocean education for pre-service teachers within Nova Scotia.

Hope Moon is entering her final year of undergraduate study, pursuing a combined honours in Environmental Science and Contemporary Studies, with a minor in Sustainability. She is interested in the intersections of science and culture, particularly with issues of environmental justice and environmental education. For her honours project, Hope will be joining the Education for Sustainability Research Group to study how family life and exposure to nature beyond pre-school impacts the bioaffinity of pre-school children. She will be participating in the gathering of data throughout the summer with the use of a games testing tool as well as administering a survey for the parents of the children to determine potential other factors related to levels of bioaffinity. Through studying children's greater environment, we may be able to better understand how to encourage greater levels of bioaffinity in our future generations. Hope is passionate about building a just and liveable future and hopes that this research can help reveal paths forward towards that goal.

Hope spent two years serving as the External Vice President of the King's Students' Union, advocating for things like accessible education for all, divestment, racial justice, and community care. She is now working for Common Roots Urban Farm, assisting their production and within the community space, and will work for the DSU Market in the school year. In her spare time, you can find Hope baking sourdough or crocheting.

WHAT I DID:
During having the chance of working in Tarah’s lab, I examined the frequency and variety of indoor and outdoor nature experiences for children and the preschool teachers’ educational approaches and goals for children’s development in nature in 2 Reggio-Emilia preschools located in Halifax, Canada. The insights emerging from our interviews with teachers and the researcher’s first-hand observations reveal that students in both preschools are exposed daily to a wide variety of outdoor nature-related activities, such as nature recreation (playing in nature); observing and studying natural creatures; collecting and making a display of ecological elements (e.g., flowers, acorns, sticks, stones, salamanders); and, small-scale cultivation. Furthermore, there is a plethora of indoor nature exposures for students inside the built environments of the preschools including live animals, plants, natural play materials (e.g., shells and sticks), and representations of nature (e.g., books, posters, etc.). However, teachers’ emphasis on anthropocentric vs nature-related educational goals showed that for the teachers participated in this study, environmental education and developing children’s nature connectedness is not the focal point of their curriculum. A companion paper in this study, currently under submission elsewhere, also examines the impact of this nature-related routine on preschool children’s emotional, cognitive, and attitudinal affinity with nature after being enrolled in a Reggio-Emilia school for at least one year.

Additionally, we evaluated preschool children’s emotional, cognitive, and attitudinal affinity with nature after being enrolled in a Reggio-Emilia preschool for at least 1 year as well as the applicability of the Games Testing research instrument for Reggio-Emilia pre-schoolers, living in Halifax, NS, Canada. Interviews were conducted with 3 to 5-year-old preschool children by using “Games Testing for Emotional, Cognitive and Attitudinal Affinity with the Biosphere” instrument developed by Giusti et. al. (2014). This instrument includes 3 sets of image-based tasks evaluating affective and cognitive aspects of children’s connectedness with nature, as well as a short interview about their motivations and intentions of playing in nature-related settings. Our results revealed that our cohort of pre-schoolers is not emotionally affiliated with nature. Although children showed moderate concern for negative environmental behaviours, they had difficulties with answering the questions related to non-human feelings and some children were not able to distinguish living from lifeless entities. Further, this cohort of children was not able to successfully recognize the role of natural resources in producing everyday products and they showed a weak cognitive ability to recognize the harmful impacts of different sorts of pollution on animals. Moreover, results reveal that the children’s negative attitudes towards nature have resulted in the children feeling safer and more free in indoor environments and playgrounds, and reluctant to spend time outdoors in green and natural environments.

WHAT I AM DOING:
Now, I am working in the Dalhousie Chemistry Department; I am coordinating a training program, called NSERC CREATE Program in BioActives, which empowers trainees with research excellence, industry experience, career research skills, and professional acumen to discover and develop new bioactive chemicals for unmet needs.

Anika Riopel combines her love of theatre with her passion for environmental education by working on creative and innovative projects. She completed her undergraduate honours thesis, under the supervision of Dr. Wright in 2018. Her thesis research focused on examining the public perception of urban swimming in the Halifax Harbour. The purpose of her study was to determine the public’s current perception of the suitability of the Halifax waterfront for swimming, and the public’s feedback on an urban swimming infrastructure proposal. Using Community Based Social Marketing as a framework, the study conducted surveys on the Halifax waterfront to determine the public’s perceived barriers and benefits toward urban swimming and to recommend strategies for a potential pilot. The survey results indicate that there is strong support for an urban swimming project. The survey also highlighted the public’s perceived benefits (community building, accessibility and tourism) and barriers (water quality, boat traffic and emergency services). Identifying these benefits and barriers allowed for the development of recommendations for a successful potential pilot. For more information about the pilot check out this fun video.

Anika’s work received national coverage and promoted a larger public discussion on urban swimming in Halifax. She received recognition for outstanding student leadership through the prestigious 2017 3M National Student Fellowship. Anika graduated with First Class Honours from Dalhousie with a Bachelor of Arts in Environment, Sustainability and Society and Theatre Arts in 2018. She was awarded with the College of Sustainability's Deborah Buszard prize for the student who has contributed significantly to academic life in the College of Sustainability. Plans for an urban swimming pilot on the Halifax Waterfront are currently in the works. 

Anika currently works for the Ecology Action Centre, an environmental NGO. She is the coordinator of Welcoming Wheels, a program that provides new immigrants and refugees with cycling opportunities to increase wellness, equity, access, connectedness and environmental health. Keeping one foot in environmental work and one foot in the arts, Anika also is working as a producer with Zuppa Theatre Company, helping create an massive immersive theatre experience in the downtown Halifax core. She also continues to teach SCUBA diving on evenings and weekends. In her “spare time” she is a relentless champion of urban swimming in Halifax – hopefully coming soon! 

Dr. Tarah Wright was the co-supervisor for Liz's Master of Environmental Studies thesis on environmental education. Over a two year period, Liz worked with Dr. Wright to research and explore the foundations of environmental education, and then to examine the presence (or absence) of environmental education in Nova Scotia. The research focused on the sixth grade curriculum and educators, within the Halifax region. Content analysis to determine the environmental quality of three curricula for the sixth grade - specifically science, social studies, and health education. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with a cohort of teachers to determine their conceptualizations of environmental education and implementation barriers (if any). The interviews were transcribed and thematically analyzed and compared with scholarly ideas. The results showed the curricula having a strong reliance on knowledge-based learning and less emphasis on experiential learning and developing attitudes. Implementation of environmental education in the classroom depended more on a teacher's personal beliefs, and the lack of training, resources and support led environmental education to be viewed as 'important but not a priority'. The research from this thesis has been published in the journal Applied Environmental Education and Communication, as well as the book Handbook of Research on Pedagogical Innovations for Sustainable Development. 

Spence, E., Wright, T., & Castleden, H. (March, 2014). Pass, Fail, or Incomplete? Analyzing Environmental Education in Nova Scotia’s Sixth Grade Curriculum, in Handbook of Research on Pedagogical Innovations for Sustainable Development. Edited by Ken D. Thomas, Helen E. Muga, pages 210-228; IGI Global.

Spence, E., Wright, T., & Castleden, H. (November, 2013). Present, Absent or Tardy? A study of the barriers, bridges, and beliefs concerning environmental education among a cohort of sixth      grade teachers in Nova Scotia. Applied Environmental Education and Communication 12(3): 197.

Currently, Liz works with the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as part of the Museum's interpretation team. Together, the team develops and delivers hands-on, interactive educational programs on Nova Scotia's natural and cultural history for both schools and the general public.

Paul is a former Masters student with the Education for Sustainability Research Group. His work explored how university professors across a range of disciplines conceptualize sustainability, sustainable universities, and the role of the university in helping to create sustainable futures.  The aim of this work was to better understand the impediments to organizational change at Canadian universities. His work highlighted the tendency among professors to articulate visions for sustainability through the disciplinary lenses that they were most familiar with. Rather than conceiving of this tendency exclusively as a barrier (as some in the discipline are want to do in lamenting academic silos), Paul’s work argued that sustainability practitioners should seek to harness this diversity as a strength and create spaces at the university that foster critical dialogues between multiple, and sometimes competing, visions for sustainability. The points of friction that inevitably emerge in culturing a pluralistic vision of ‘sustainabilities’, Paul contends, provides great opportunity to push debates on sustainability forward.

Paul is currently finishing is PhD in the Health, Environment, and Communities Research Lab (HEC Lab) in the Department of Geography and Planning at Queen’s University. His current work focuses on the politics of green urban mega-developments as they play out in the context of Indigenous assertions of sacredness, jurisdiction, and sovereignty over land.

Jennifer Yakamovich (Halifax/K’jipuktuk) is pursuing a Master of Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University, with a focus on the socio-cultural dimensions of sustainability. As a researcher in the Education for Sustainability Research Group, she is exploring intersections of art (visual, installation and performance) and environmental education/communication in Canada by speaking with current environmentally-engaged artists and documenting their experiences. Drawing from several fields including human geography, ecology, environmental humanities, and art history, Jennifer hopes to make connections across disciplines to engage with the social questions of climate change, as well as to envision more sustainable, livable, and just futures for both human and “wider-than-human” communities.