Corrin L. Behm
behm1@illinois.edu

Current Research (Master's Thesis)

What makes one person care about the environment and one not? What are positive ways to encourage conservation behavior? Can any of these huge questions even be answered? Change is imparative. Sustainable practice is the answer.

Green trends and sustainability issues are at the forefront of our culture today. But how much do young people actually know about these issues? My Master's work will involve an online questionnaire which hopes to examine perceptions of incoming freshman to help the University of Illinois understand where they need to focus for educating students about this topic. I will be working with the Office of Sustainability and Facilities & Services to create a questionnaire that will be meaningful and useful for each of these departments as they work toward increasing sustainability at the U of I.

During my work, I hope to also collect information on past events in people's lives that create a conservation mindset. What are key events that occur?

Other Involvement

I am currently a member of the Student Sustainability Committee and on the Education Task Force of the Sustainability Advisory Committee. Both of these groups are working toward increase sustainability practice at the University, with the latter focusing on how to best bring about formal and nonformal education on the topic.

I am the current President of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences Graduate Student Organization. We are a social and professional group that brings together the graduate students for activities outside of work and school. Activites include graduate lunches, happy hours, and networking events.

I currently am the Teaching Assistant for NRES 100 - Fundamentals of Environmental Science and NRES 472 - Environmental Psychology. I also work as a moderator for the online NRES 416 - Forest Biology course as well as the online NRES 598 - Wildlife Ecoloy and Ag Policy course.

I work occasionally at the Anita Purves Nature Center in Urbana. We do environmentally themed education programs and birthday parties for the public. I get to teach fun things about survival skills and fire building or show off our snakes, turtles, and owls.

Last but not least, I write for the Buzz Magazine, which is a weekly insert of the Daily Illini University newspaper, as well as the217.com which is the online version of the Buzz. I focus my stories on events, activities, and points of interest that are particularly green or humanitarian in nature. Check out my portfolio of articles.

Previous Work

In the lab, I am very involved with the University of Illinois Arboretum project. In spring of 2009 I conducted my own side study for this project. It involved making observations and taking fieldnotes at the Arboretum to track usage. I also conducted a few interviews to get information on why people are using the Arboretum and what they think would increase their usage. Data from my work will be incorporated into the overall research report.

During spring of 2009 I evaluated the Champaign Tomorrow website. This site was created by the City of Champaign as a public participation tool. This tool allowed citizens to share input on their ideas for the City of Champaign long-term development plan. We examined effectiveness, ease of use, popularity, and problems of this website. Information was then passed on to the city to help with the process. I also wrote an article promoting the site that appeared in the Buzz section of the Daily Illini newspaper. Check out site at www.champaigntomorrow.com

Future Plans

I hope to obtain my Master's by December of 2010. During the spring of 2011, I hope to study abroad in Sweden and take classes on sustainability. In the Scandinavian countries, sustainability is part of the culture. Why? What are they doing that can help change the culture of the US? I will be learning as much as I can about these issues and possibly doing interviews to gain a greater understanding.

After that I am looking to take a position with either a government agency, a non-profit, or an environmental education center. Environmental education is an area I have experience in, having worked at 8 different centers/camps already. I feel strongly about bringing environemental learning to children in this type of setting and teaching about these issues at a young age to create a culture of care for the environment.