Changes in Environmental Attitudes of Middle and High School Students after Anuran Call Monitoring

무미양서류의 음성 신호를 이용한 생물 모니터링의 수행에 따른 중. 고등학생들의 환경 인식 변화

This study was conducted to investigate whether attitudes and recognitions of middle and high school students regarding environmental concerns were improved after anuran call monitoring. It was a step toward monitoring local environmental changes with anuran calls. Three-striped pond frogs (Rana nigromaculata), Bullfrogs (R. catesbeiana), and Narrow-mouthed toads (Kaloula borealis) were surveyed to determine local abundance and distribution of them in 12 study sites using their advertising calls. A published booklet, which contains morphological, physiological, ecological, and acoustic information on amphibian species and methods of monitoring anuran calls were provided to monitoring students for identifying the three species. Pretest-posttest were conducted before and after monitoring from 10 April to 28 August in 2005 to determine how the monitoring students changed their attitudes on environmental issues, increased knowledges on amphibians, and improved the understanding on the cause and effect of declining amphibian populations. The amphibian monitoring program was effective to improve the students' attitudes towards conserving environments as well as the students' knowledge on general behavior and ecology of various amphibian species although their understanding about various environmental problems was not. In addition, the program increased the students' understanding on the problems of declining amphibian populations.