Raising awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals through Ecological Projects in Higher Education

This research demonstrates a novel method to communicate in Higher Education and raise awareness of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and particularly of Sustainable Development Goals, a vital step in accelerating action for their fulfillment. Students of the Faculty of Engineering during the Ecology course participated in groups in ten Ecological Projects covering a wide range of fields. These creative and experimental Ecological Projects focused on Sustainable Development Goals 3, 4, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15 were inspired by Environmental science and Ecology. Their presentation occurred as event for the World Environment Day and the European Sustainable Development Week in the central square of the capital city of a region, which is a lignite mining region and the country's energy heart. The Ecological Projects' overall impacts were investigated through questionnaires completed by the participating students. Various statistical techniques were conducted. Nineteen questions establish as a measurement tool in its final form the questionnaire, whose Cronbach's alpha is 0.895 indicating that an excellent reliability was estimated. The central tendency of the responses in Questions such as Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5, Q6, Q8, Q10, Q14, Q15, Q16, Q17, Q18, Q19 indicates that Ecological Projects had enough impact on students' cognitive, social and moral level. The Ecological Projects' implementation and presentation sufficiently raised awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals. In three questions were detected statistically significant differences between the genders. Finally, according to the questionnaire responses, pairs of questions with moderate or strong monotonic association between them are presented too. (c) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This research showcases a new approach to communication in Higher Education to raise students' awareness of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals. The implemented Ecological Projects had significant impacts on students' cognitive, social, and moral levels, effectively raising awareness of the SDGs. Additionally, statistical analysis revealed gender differences and associations between questionnaire responses.