Noa Avriel Avni

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Senior Researcher at Dead Sea-Arava Science Center (DSASC)

Students in peripheral areas often score lower in the sciences than those in urban areas. This study explores the feasibility of distance learning in making quality science education accessible everywhere. In 2016, the Israeli government established technological infrastructure in southern peripheral schools, but these resources remained largely un...

Modern education has fostered universal forms of knowledge, practices, pedagogical paradigms, and infrastructure. Uniform educational models can overlook the richness of regional biological and cultural diversity, and their interactions (in short, biocultural diversity). The omission of vernacular forms of knowledge and also endemic biota and their...

Education for sustainability has become a main thrust of environmental education since the early 1990s. In this context, the development of ecological and environmental literacy has been favored as a key tool for cultivating environmental concern and responsible human behavior towards ecosystems. In recent years, the concept of sense of place (SoP)...

Long-term ecological (or socio-ecological) research (LTER or LTSER) sites, as well as biological stations, botanical gardens, and other platforms, enable the integration of diverse disciplines and cultural forms of knowledge rooted in specific localities to conduct biocultural educational programs. Consequently, these platforms provide valuable sit...

eLTER-RI has developed the concept of socio-ecological platforms for conducting policy-relevant, inter- and transdisciplinary research. This article provides a narrative of the establishment and activities of three of Israel's long-term socio-ecological platforms, including their successes and challenges (in Hebrew).

Conflicting interests amongst different stakeholder groups regarding land use challenge the protection of natural values in socio-ecological systems (SES). In this paper we show, based on a case study of Israel's Makhteshim Country National Park, how mapping the different interests and analyzing the data with a GIS system allows us to locate signif...

Purpose Students' simplistic observations and uninspired solutions for social-ecological dilemmas were the motivation for this study. The purpose of this paper is to foster systemic thinking in students and study the role of the lecturers. Design/methodology/approach The research was designed as a self-study action-research (AR), which was carried...

Context Place-based transdisciplinary research involves multiple academic disciplines and non-academic actors. Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) platform is one concept with ~ 80 initiatives globally. Objectives As an exercise in learning through evaluation we audited (1) the siting, construction and maintenance of individual LTSER platf...

The growing understanding that transdisciplinary research is required for sustainable land management (i.e., co-production of knowledge by researchers and land managers) stems from the complexity and unpredictability of social-ecological systems. However, many scientists feel that the large gap between the agendas and worldviews of scientists and l...

Communities often lack a framework to guide research and action by which to mitigate complex socio-ecological challenges in the face of conflicting interests and poorly understood ecological and socio-political mechanisms. In an effort to provide such a framework, this article offers an approach for the systematic analysis of societal interactions...

The Negev desert features numerous unique geologic phenomena, the most prominent being crater-like valleys which have formed in a complex erosional process. These erosional craters expose a large variety of ancient rocks and geologic phenomena that reveal details of a rich geologic history. The unique conditions within the erosional craters provide...

Farming in drylands has always been challenging, however, modern technologies that allow irrigation by using distant water have sparked renewed interest in desert agriculture. Using imported water liberates the modern farmers from one of the major limitations created by this extreme environment, but the high price of the water, along with natural p...

With an overarching goal of addressing global and regional sustainability challenges, Long TermSocio-Ecological Research Platforms (LTSER) aim to conduct place-based research, to collect and synthesize both environmental and socio-economic data, and to involve a broader stakeholder pool to set the research agenda. To date there have been few studie...

This poster presents the results of stakeholder mapping and the creation of a socio-ecological conceptual model to aid in addressing soil erosion issues in the Negev Highlands.

Education for sustainability calls for a change in the frame of reference towards the world and therefore a profound change of the conventional education approach is required. This article presents a process of change in teachers' paradigmatic conception of their role: from knowledge-agents to moderators who encourage learning processes in their cl...

This study was designed to refine understanding of the influence of environmental education on the development of thought processes, on moral awareness and on students' ability to act as environmental citizens. The findings are based on content analysis of students' reflections on leading environmental change through ecological-thinking based actio...

Set against the background of the call for sustainable development, a fostering of sense of place emerged as one of education for sustainability's chief goals. Heidegger's concept of dwelling thinking guided us, in this research, to look beyond the emotional and cognitive attachment to a place toward a state of mind which is not limited to a specif...

This study focuses on the perception of a “place” as “home” and on place attachment among children. The aim was to understand how these perceptions contribute to the development of environmental citizenship. The research was conducted in an isolated desert town, following an intervention program aimed at encouraging deeper attachment to a locale. T...