Impact of Outdoor Educational Activities and Gender on Pupils Knowledge of Environmental Issues and Problems in Selected Primary Schools in Nigeria

Environmental problems such as pollution, waste disposal, soil erosion, flooding and deforestation through environmental education seem to have produced little or no result as the problems still persist. Scholars have therefore advocated environmental education activities that focus on early inculcation of the right knowledge in pupils at the primary school level. The study, therefore, investigated the impact of outdoor educational activities and gender on pupils knowledge of environmental issues and problems. The instrument used was Environmental Knowledge Test (r=0.86) and three hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Outdoor educational activities had significant main effect on pupils environmental knowledge (F(1,471) = 137.37; p smaller than 0.05). Gender was found to have significant main effect on pupils environmental knowledge (F(1,471) = 27.45; p smaller than 0.05). Female pupils performed better (X =18.58; SD = .77) than their male counterparts (X =17.22; SD= -.59) in environmental knowledge. Outdoor educational activities with discussion proved more effective at improving pupils knowledge and attitude of environmental issues and problems. It was however, recommended among others that outdoor educational activities should be adopted in teaching environmental concepts in primary schools in Nigeria.