COMPARING KNOWLEDGE ABOUT MANGROVE ECOSYSTEM BETWEEN STUDENTS LIVING IN MANGROVE ECOTOURISM AND NON MANGROVE ECOTOURISM AREA IN SERDANG BEDAGAI, NORTHERN SUMATERA

This study aimed to compare the effect of ecotourism mangrove area and students gender on the knowledge of mangrove ecosystem. As much as eighty students from public junior high schools located in mangrove ecotourism area and another eighty students from mangrove area with no ecotourism program were randomly selected and surveyed in Serdangbedagai district, Northern Sumatra, Indonesia. Students were given 18 items of open knowledge test about mangrove ecosystem. The data were analyzed with t test and Two way Anova to compare students’ knowledge between those two areas, assisted by SPSS v.21. Results showed that students’ who are living in ecotourism mangrove area had higher knowledge score compared to students living in non mangrove ecotourism area. There is a significant effect of interaction between students’ location and gender towards their mangrove ecosystem knowledge. In mangrove ecotourism area, female students knowledge were higher compared to male students. This study showed significants effects of mangrove ecotourism program on knowledge of residential students towards mangrove ecosystem. Mangrove ecotourism program helps to construct students knowledge about mangrove ecosystem and this result promotes alternative way to increase coastal students knowledge about their environment by accelerating learning program in the school with ecotourism program.