The Utah House: An effective educational tool and catalyst for behavior change?

The Utah House in Kaysville, UT is a demonstration facility built and operated by Utah State University Cooperative Extension. It is designed to showcase alternative building techniques, with a focus on sustainable use of resources, energy and water conservation, healthy indoor air, and universal design. A survey was sent to visitors of the Utah House in January 2008. Questions were asked about knowledge of key topics, and engagement in selected pro-environmental behaviors, to determine if their visit to the house influenced their level of knowledge or more importantly, their behavior. Significant increases in self-reported knowledge were found for all five topic areas, indicating that the house was an effective educational tool. Differences in self-reported knowledge before the visit were found for gender and educational level, but mean ratings for all groups were essentially the same after the visit. Although many visitors had already engaged in at least one pro-environmental behavior before coming to the house (83%), a large percentage (63%) made at least one change as a result of their visit, indicating that the house was a catalyst for behavior change. Although several interesting correlations were found between knowledge, feelings and behavior, no strong predictor of behavior emerged.