Investigation of university students' awareness of the environment in the COVID-19 pandemic process

The historical development of humankind has brought about his distance from nature. Human beings, who have been in one-to-one interaction with nature, soil, and all other living things for centuries, have moved away from them in time and have begun to lose their respect for other living things while experiencing the process of self-knowledge. Factors like technological developments, urbanization, and population growth have severed people's bonds with the earth, and industrialization has even adversely affected agricultural living conditions. Environmental problems do not remain only in the places where they occur, but also affect very different parts of the world. Certainly, people who perceive the environmental problems around them can focus on solving these problems. However, even if these internal impulses in human beings originate from pure self-interested thinking, they must be transformed into continuous behaviors with a more comprehensive education. Individuals who have positive attitudes towards the environment, looking for friendly and beneficial behaviors, even making them a lifestyle, and elevating the next generations with this understanding, must be raised. This can only be achieved with responsive environmental education. The prevalence of environmental education is increasing rapidly in the changing world and it is becoming a subject that is increasingly emphasized in education and training. As with all age levels, especially university students' awareness of the environment and their positive attitudes show that the multiplier effect is of high importance in terms of environmental protection. This study aimed to reveal the attitudes and awareness levels of university students toward the environment in process of the COVID-19 pandemic. A general screening model was used in this study. The sample of the study consists of students who are selected by an easily accessible method and continue to the faculty of education. In the study, the data collection tool "Environmental attitude scale" and "environmental awareness scale" was used, and descriptive statistics, t-test, and ANOVA were used in the analysis of the data. The results showed that there were significant differences in terms of the type of high school graduate, the area of high school, the number of siblings, the educational status of parents, and participation in an environmental activity except in terms of gender and class level. According to these results, it is suggested that in future research, the activities related to the environment should be asked in more detail, and the effect of these variables on awareness and attitude towards the environment should be carried out with a larger sample.