Effectiveness of PEAK (Promoting Environmental Awareness in Kids)

Along the lines of Ben's latest blog, "Effectiveness of Trainer Courses," I'd like to summarize a few key points from a recent evaluation we conducted on the effectiveness of our kid's program PEAK (Promoting Environmental Awareness in Kids). Here is a summary of the report; the Center hopes to eventually have a PDF version available for the general public on our website:

Introduction
PEAK is a partnership program between the Center for Outdoor Ethics and REI; it began in 2003 as a means to provide Leave No Trace education to younger audiences.

The program has experienced substantial growth and new developments in recent years as the Center continues to expand it outreach to include a diversity of communities.

Methods
An online survey was conducted in March and April of this year. Community members recognized for their high involvement with Leave No Trace or the PEAK program were invited to participate.

A total of 155 responses were collected, analyzed and a formal report was produced.

Results
Of the 155 respondents, the majority had some formal Leave No Trace training, were working with youth in the 7-10 age range and were working with White/Caucasian youth.

The majority of respondents somewhat or strongly agreed with statements indicating that the program was a valuable experience for youth, age appropriate in its content, fun and engaging for participants and easy to facilitate by educators.

The majority of respondents somewhat or strongly agreed with statements indicating that the program was packaged and presented in a way that was preferable, in terms of durability, ease of use in a variety of classroom settings, and affordability.

Specific areas of improvement that were identified included:
Content that was more relevant to urban youth
Content that was more relevant to both younger (4-6) and older (13+) age groups
Content that was more appropriate for large groups.

Conclusion
The evaluation was successful in providing the Center with comprehensive data and information about the PEAK program's effectiveness through the lens of active community members.

Feedback, specifically addressing areas of improvement, will be used in future program developments (if it has not been addressed already).

**Note: the Education Department performed this evaluation as part of the Center's goal to conduct and expand upon its current research. Stayed tuned for other research developments in upcoming months.