Interdisciplinary Interactions Between Humans and the Natural World

Abstract

Humans interact with nature in a variety of different ways. The goal of this work is to examine these interactions through three distinct disciplines: environmental psychology, geoscience education, and environmental geology. Here, quantitative and qualitative analyses are used in projects that consider the ways humans think about, learn about, and are affected by the natural world. The first study examines on environmental risk perceptions related to changes in outdoor activity during COVID-19 legislative shutdowns and finds that environmental awareness and pro-environmental behaviors are more closely tied to societal values, worldviews, and political leaning. The second project explores the motivations, benefits, and barriers of implementing virtual field experiences in geoscience-related educational spaces. The results indicate that filling the instructional gap caused by canceled field trips and field courses due to COVID-19 regulations was the primary motivation behind virtual field experience implementation. Accessibility for students who otherwise may not have been able to participate was the primary benefit cited, while the most noted barriers were a lack of time, software development skills, and access to technological resources. Finally, the third project focuses on the source, distribution, and attenuation of radon in private groundwater wells in two rural communities of northeast Alabama that saw a higher-than-average occurrence of several types of cancer. Using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry we found uranium and thorium—potential radioactive parents of radon—at concentrations higher than average levels in Earth’s crust in the areas around the communities. Periodic groundwater sampling from two small-scale water filtration systems and a background water well indicates the ability of the filters to effectively remove radon from groundwater with regular filter replacement.