Browsing by Author "Theberge, Kaitlyn"
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- A Comprehensive Overview of Environmental Education: Best Practices for Promoting Belonging, Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity (BEID) in Environmental EducationSchmidt, Amelia R.; Sinkular, Emily N.; Holcombe, Brogan E.; Jennings, Kelsey K.; Theberge, Kaitlyn (Virginia Tech, 2022-11-30)Environmental education is the process of growing understanding, skills, and attitudes toward the environment in order to engage individuals in environmental problem-solving. Environmental education efforts were established in the early 1970s as environmental concerns were recognized. Historically, environmental education has not been equitable, inclusive, and diverse, especially in youth programs. Insufficient diversity in environmental education organizations and programs creates a diminished sense of belonging for underrepresented groups in environmental fields. To understand this history and consolidate current research, we conducted a comprehensive literature review on environmental education efforts to highlight common practices in environmental education to determine approaches that would best contribute to a heightened sense of belonging for all participants in environmental education programs. We examined the basics of environmental education–the historical perspectives, curricular aspects, and associated definitions–before moving on to look at the best practices–or instructional standards which contribute to positive results–for environmental education overall. After an in-depth analysis of these two aspects of environmental education, we identified five best practices for increasing belonging, inclusion, equity, and diversity (BEID) in environmental education. Based on the literature, environmental education programs can boost BEID by maintaining flexibility in lesson materials and facilitation, promoting valued instruction through relevant content, acknowledging barriers, performing varied evaluations, and facilitating mentorship opportunities. The practices consist of various instructional, cooperative, and social strategies to enhance already established instructional methods in environmental education so that BEID aspects are emphasized and established. Each of the five practices for BEID are rooted in the best practices for environmental education identified in the second step of our review. All in all, both of these best practice categories have the same core; the only difference is whether or not they are viewed through a lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion. These best practices for BEID tailor programs toward the target audience, making the material more applicable and engaging. A collective solution is required to mitigate modern environmental issues, and this can not occur if only one segment of the population is represented, thus, creating belonging in environmental education is crucial.
- Modelling the Interaction of Fishing with Size Structure, Dimorphism, and Egg Production of Clawed LobstersTheberge, Kaitlyn (Virginia Tech, 2023-01-24)Many management strategies are available to fishery managers to improve the sustainability of a fishery; however, it is not always clear how implemented strategies interact with the demographics of the exploited species. Management decisions are often made in order to maximize egg production and recruitment or to preserve specific size classes to increase reproductive output. Consequences of these strategies could include variation from a natural size structure of the population, exaggerated sexual dimorphism, skewed sex ratios, and suboptimal mating conditions. To examine the possibility of these consequences, I ran a series of deterministic models to simulate the fished and unfished population dynamics of two clawed lobster species, American lobster (Homarus americanus) and European lobster (Homarus gammarus), under a variety of management strategies. Protection of ovigerous females takes two forms in this model. The American fishery in the Gulf of Maine requires fishers to v-notch ovigerous females for up to four years of protection from fishing. The European fishery in southern Norway bans the harvest of ovigerous females, which translates to one year of protection. I compared the relative impact of the two levels of ovigerous female protections on factors that may be important for reproductive success: size structure, dimorphism, sex ratio, and egg production for both species. I then considered a case study on European lobster to evaluate the interaction of a no-take marine protected area with a slot limit to compare relative impacts to egg production, overall size structure and dimorphism. Results showed that American lobster females benefitted greatly from strict protections such as v-notching in terms of mean size increase and egg production, but mean size dimorphism and the overall proportion of females also increased with higher fishing pressure. European lobster females also benefitted from protections, but less dramatically than American lobsters, and with lower size dimorphism. In the case study, European lobsters benefited most from the implementation of a no-take marine protected area in combination with a slot limit to preserve the largest individuals of both sexes which improved overall egg production. By taking a simulation approach to evaluate these different management strategies on two closely related species of lobster, this thesis provides a basis for understanding how fishery decisions can achieve their sustainability goals in addition to quantifying some of the unintended impacts of management on parameters that may be important to overall reproductive success.