Moving Beyond the City-Wilderness Paradox: A Study of
Environmental Education in an Urban High School

Doug Costello
Bachelor's of Arts in Environmental Studies
December 2001

The OLEEP program, or Outdoor Leadership Environmental Education Program, is a cooperative program between Brown University and the Met School, a state career and technical school in Providence, Rhode Island, and provides three different avenues of exploring the relationship between urban youth and the environment:

• weekly workshops examining environmental issues
  
• periodic hiking and camping experiences in 'the outdoors'
  
• one-on-one mentoring relationships
  

Its mission is to:
"Provide the Met School students an opportunity to explore outdoor and urban environments, and make connections between the two by learning about local environmental issues and by becoming involved in local environmental action." As a mentor in OLEEP from the period of 2000-2001, I witnessed an enthusiasm among fellow mentors for educating urban high school youth about environmental issues. As the program moved forward in new directions, though, there was an uncertainty among these mentors as to the best methods of environmental education, due to a lack of communication with the high school population itself. Thus, I hoped to fill this communication gap between mentors and mentees in the OLEEP program, asking the central question: What are urban high school students' current perceptions of the physical environment, and how can these perceptions be used to design curricula and advance the mission of OLEEP?

This thesis summarizes social research (surveys, interviews, and focus groups) conducted with stakeholders in the OLEEP program (OLEEP mentors, OLEEP mentees, and Met School students) over a period of six months. It then uses the relevant findings of that research to explain the connection to OLEEP, and suggests the inclusion of an environmental action project into the program. Finally, it offers an information packet for OLEEP mentors to understand how an environmental action project, using the example of vacant lots, could be incorporated into the program.