Environmental consciousness of students from secondary and high schools in Bodrum, Turkey

In this study, it is aimed to determine environmental awareness of secondary and high school students in Bodrum, Turkey. This cross-sectional designed study was conducted on 381 students from secondary school and 335 high school students between 5th and 12th grades in Bodrum. In order to assess the environmental consciousness level, a questionnaire form consisting 58 questions and 17 statements for evaluation of environmental consciousness was developed by researchers. t test was used for the difference between the distribution of percentages and the difference between the averages of environmental consciousness level. The top three environmental health issues that were determined as "very harmful" were "smoking, air pollution resulting from power plants and being in a smoking area" for secondary school students and "smoking, air pollution resulting from power plants and ozone depletion" for high school students. Both in secondary and high school students, the mean environmental consciousness level of female students was higher than that of male students. The mean environmental consciousness level was 12.4 ± 2.7 for secondary school students and 12.1 ± 3.1 for high school students. There was a need of training activities of both the teachers and the students to improve the environmental awareness of the secondary and high school students.