The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of inquiry- based water environmental education on the environmental literacy of 5th graders in elementary school. Three previous questionnaires(Sung & Park, 2010; Kim, 2012; Park, 2012) were reconstructed into a test tool to survey the effects of an inquiry-based water environmental education program. The i-STATistics program was used to analyze the results.
The findings of this study are as follows. First, the inquiry-based water environmental education program did not show statistically significant differences in terms of knowledge areas. Second, the inquiry-based water environmental education program was effective the development of the emotional domain. Third, the inquiry-based water environmental education program was effective for the development of the behavioral domain. Fourth, the inquiry-based water environmental education program had a positive effect on the development of students' environmental literacy.
In conclusion, the inquiry-based water environmental education program has positive effects on environmental literacy. Therefore, more intensive research should be conducted, linking teaching and learning methods.