Education plays a crucial
role in shaping the character of students, including fostering their
environmental awareness. Increasingly complex environmental issues demand early
awareness, especially among the younger generation as the nation’s future leaders.
Social Studies (IPS) is one of the subjects that is highly relevant for
instilling values of environmental care, particularly through experiential
learning methods such as the outing class method. This method provides
opportunities for students to interact directly with their surroundings,
thereby building awareness and responsibility for environmental preservation.
This study aims to determine the effect of implementing the outing class method
in Social Studies learning to improve students’ environmental awareness.
This research was
conducted at SMP Negeri 2 Buduran using a quantitative experimental approach
with a quasi-experimental design. Data collection techniques included
questionnaires and documentation. The data analysis was performed using SPSS
version 26, employing the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test, Mann-Whitney U Test, and
N-Gain Score calculation. The data sources were students of class VII SMP
Negeri 2 Buduran, with the research subjects consisting of class VII-A as the
experimental group and VII-B as the control group. The sample was determined
using purposive sampling.
The results of the study
indicate that it can be concluded that Social Studies learning through the
outing class method significantly influences the improvement of students'
environmental awareness. This is evidenced by the significant difference
between the pretest and posttest scores in the experimental group, with an
average N-Gain score of 73.91, categorized as high. In addition, the
Mann-Whitney U Test showed a significant difference between the experimental
and control groups, with the experimental group consistently achieving higher
environmental awareness scores. Through experiential learning, students become
more active, involved, and better understand the importance of maintaining
environmental diversity. Therefore, the outing class method is considered
effective to be applied in Social Studies learning to foster students’
environmental awareness.
Keywords: Environmental
Awareness, Social Studies, Outing Class