Home⇛International Journal of Multidisciplinary: Applied Business and Education Research⇛vol. 6 no. 5 (2025)

Hanging Green Space: Assessing the Relationship between Students' Horticultural Involvement and Environmental Awareness

Jonathan P. Mellona | Jo Neil Peria

Discipline: Environmental and Public Health

 

Abstract:

The world is experiencing various environmental issues which pose serious threat to human health and well-being. These problems must be introduced to the classroom to raise environmental awareness among the students. In relation to the strategies in teaching environmental education, schools utilize gardens to provide students with hands-on learning. This study aimed to determine the relationship between Grade 11 STEM students’ horticultural involvement and their environmental awareness through Hanging Green Space Project at Pasig National High School during the second semester of the school year 2024-2025. The study employed descriptive correlational research design and gathered data from selected 81 Grade 11 STEM students through survey questionnaires. Descriptive statistics revealed that students strongly agreed on their active involvement in horticulture and demonstrated high levels of environmental awareness after conducting the Hanging Green Space Project. Meanwhile, inferential statistics using Pearson’s correlation showed a significant relationship between students’ horticultural involvement and environmental awareness, correlation values ranging from 0.221 to 0.371 (p<0.05), indicating weak to moderate positive relationship. These results imply that students who are actively engaged in horticultural activities tend to be more aware of the environmental issues. Furthermore, the study recommends incorporating horticultural or gardening activities various discipline to connect the practical activities with theoretical and ethical reflections. In addition, incorporating gardening into a broader curriculum framework is encouraged to sustain development of horticultural involvement and promote awareness of environmental issues among wider groups of learners.



References:

  1. Ahmad, F. S., Velu, B. K. D. V., Zaidin, N. & Shariff, S.  A.  (2019).  Entrepreneurship  education for  industrial  professional:  The  influence of  communication,  teamwork,  leadership and  innovative  soft  skill  on  job  perfor-mance. International   Journal   of   Recent Technology and Engineering, 8(3). https://doi.org/10.35940/ijrte.C1037.1183S319
  2. Aikaterini,  P.,  Athina,  K.,  Stefanos,  A.  (2020). Education  for  sustainability  development via school garden. European Journal of Ed-ucation Studies, 7(9). https://doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v7i9.3247
  3. Alaimo, K., Coringato, E., Lacy, K., Hebert, J. R. & Beavers, A. W. (2024). Caretaking, accom-plishment  and  connection  to  nature:  The ‘gardening triad’ and its role in new com-munity gardeners’ engagement, and social and emotional well-being. People and Na-ture, 6, 2014-2018. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10696
  4. Amiri, A., Geravandi, S., Rostami, F. (2021). Po-tential  effects  of  school  garden  on  stu-dents’  knowledge,  attitude  and  experi-ence:  A  pilot  project  on  sixth  grade  stu-dents in Iran. Science Direct. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2021.127174Mellona& Peria, 2025/Hanging Green SpaceIJMABER 2281Volume 6| Number 5| May| 2025
  5. Anugraheni,  T.  D.,  Izzah,  L.,  Hadi,  M.  S.  (2023). Increasing the students’ speaking ability through   role-playing  with  Slovin’s  for-mula  sample  size. Jurnal  Studi  Guru  dan Pembelajaran, 6(3), 262-272. https://doi.org/10.30605/jsgp.6.3.2023.2825
  6. Geilfus, C. M., Zorb, C., Jones, J. J., Wimmer, M. A. & Schmockel, S. M. (2024). Water for agri-culture: More crop per drop. Plant Biology, 26, 499-507. https://doi.org/10.1111/plb.13652
  7. Hofman,   T.,   Ghoshal,   S.,   Tufenkji,   N.,   Ada-mowski,  J.  F.,  Bayen,  S.,  Chen,  Q.,  Demo-kritou, P., Flury, M., Huffer, T., Ivleva, N. P., Ji, R., Leask, R. L., Maric, M., Mitrano, D. M., Sander, M., Pahl, S., Rillig, M. C., Walker, T. R., White, J. C., Wilkinson, K. J. (2023). Plas-tics can be used more sustainably in agri-culture. Communications Earth & Environ-ment, 4(332). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00982-4
  8. Khanpoor-Siahdarka,   M.   &   Masnavi,   M.   R. (2025). Assessment  of  community  gar-dens’ role in mitigating air pollution and expanding  social  opportunities:  Lessons from  a  neighborhood  with  limited  green infrastructure    in    Tehran    city. Energy Nexus, 17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nexus.2025.100363
  9. Koay, W. I. & Dillon, D. (2020). Community gar-dening:  Stress,  well-being,  and  resilience potentials. International  Journal  of  Envi-ronmental   Research   and   Public   Health, 17(18). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186740
  10. Regmi,  R.  K.  (2018).  Urbanization  and  related environmental   issues   of   Metro   Manila. Journal of Advances College of Engineering and    Management,    3. https://doi.org/10.3126/jacem.v3i0.18906
  11. Stevenson  III,  W.  R.  (2024). Garden  of  hope: Ecoinertia, nature awareness and garden-based learning among university students in Kyoto, Japan. The Japanese Society of En-vironmental Education, 33(4). https://doi.org/10.5647/jsoee.33_4_3
  12. Valenzuela-Morales,    G.Y.,    Hernández-Téllez, M.;   Ruiz-Gómez,   M.d.L.,   Gómez-Albores, M.A.,  Arévalo-Mejía,  R.  &  Mastachi-Loza, C.A.  (2022).  Water  conservation  educa-tion in elementary schools: The case of the Nenetzingo River Catchment, Mexico. Sus-tainability, 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14042402
  13. White,   J.   B.   (2022).   Perceptions   of   middle school students on gardening (ED643190)  [Doctoral  dissertation,  Mis-sissippi  State  University].  ProQuest  Dis-sertations Publishing. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED643190.
  14. Yılmaz, N. & Erkal, S. (2016). Determining un-dergraduate  students’  environmental awareness and environmental sensitivity. World  Journal  of Environmental  Research. 6(2), 67-74. https://doi.org/10.18844/wjer.v6i2.1631

Tools


Copyright © 2025  KITE Digital Educational Solutions |  Exclusively distributed by CE-Logic