Students' Understanding of Climate Change: Insights for Scientists and Educators

1997 ◽  
Vol 78 (10) ◽  
pp. 2232-2240 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. V. Rajeev Gowda ◽  
Jeffrey C. Fox ◽  
Robin D. Magelky
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High School Students ◽  
News Media ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
School Students ◽  
The Public ◽  
Educational Role ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
High Level

Teachers and meteorologists are among the most respected purveyors of scientific information to the public. As such, they can play an influential role in educating the public about basic atmosphere-related phenomena. To better fulfill this educational role, it is necessary to (i) identify and (ii) correct people's major misconceptions about climatic and atmospheric issues, including global climate change. This paper reports the results of a survey of high school students' knowledge and attitudes about climate change. The authors use open-ended survey questions to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the range of “mistakes” that are made. The results show misconceptions including inflated estimates of temperature change, confusion between ozone depletion and global warming, the perception of warmer weather and a belief that all environmentally harmful acts cause climate change. Also discussed is the origin of these mistakes from the perspective of current social scientific literature. It is suggested that these misconceptions arise from low levels of information, reliance on the televised news media, use of judgmental heuristics, confusion between weather and climate, and “fuzzy environmentalism,” wherein students perceive disparate environmental harms as significantly interrelated. The study also reveals that students have a very high level of trust in scientists and teachers. This suggests a role for scientists and educators through which they help correct misconceptions about climate change and ensure that people adopt effective environmentally protective measures.

scholarly journals Using Scientific Conferences to Engage the Public on Climate Change

2017 ◽  
Vol 98 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-230
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Hicke ◽  
John T. Abatzoglou ◽  
Steven Daley-Laursen ◽  
Jamie Esler ◽  
Lauren E. Parker
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
School Students ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
The Public ◽  
Local Climate Change ◽  
Conference Attendance

Abstract Climate change is often perceived as controversial in the public’s view. One meaningful way scientists can address this problem is to engage with the public to increase understanding of climate change. Attendees of scientific conferences address climate change within meetings yet rarely interact with the public as part of conference attendance. Here, we describe outreach (sending experts into the community) and inreach (bringing the public to a conference) activities at the 2015 Northwest Climate Conference in Idaho that were designed to increase the local community’s understanding of climate change and foster interaction between scientists and the public. Conference attendees volunteered to visit community schools and civic groups to give presentations and engage in a discussion on climate change. We designed a well-attended evening plenary session for the public that featured an experienced speaker who described local climate change impacts important to the community. Local high school students attended the conference, and several were mentored by conference attendees. We reached an estimated 1,000 students and 500 other members of the public in person and many others via advertising and newspaper articles. Keys to our success were local contacts with excellent connections to schools, civic organizations, local government officials, interest groups, and a pool of motivated, enthusiastic conference attendees who were already traveling to the area. We encourage other conference organizers to consider these activities in their future meetings to increase public knowledge of climate change, particularly given the urgency of action needed to limit future climate change and its impacts.

Learning Progressions & Climate Change

2015 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 232-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joyce M. Parker ◽  
Elizabeth X. de los Santos ◽  
Charles W. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Learning Progression ◽  
Science Standards ◽  
School Students ◽  
Informed Citizenry ◽  
Level Of Understanding

Our society is currently having serious debates about sources of energy and global climate change. But do students (and the public) have the requisite knowledge to engage these issues as informed citizenry? The learning-progression research summarized here indicates that only 10% of high school students typically have a level of understanding commensurate with that called for in the Next Generation Science Standards. The learning-progression research shows how most students fall short of being able to trace matter and energy through carbon-transforming processes such as photosynthesis, respiration, and combustion that are at the center of analyses of energy use and global climate change. We discuss the more typical types of understanding that students develop and their implications for teaching.

Climate Justice

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
Policy Discourse ◽  
Mary Robinson ◽  
The Public ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
To Come ◽  
Run Up ◽  
High Level

Climate justice requires sharing the burdens and benefits of climate change and its resolution equitably and fairly. It brings together justice between generations and justice within generations. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals summit in September 2015, and the Conference of Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris in December 2015, brought climate justice center stage in global discussions. In the run up to Paris, Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, instituted the Climate Justice Dialogue. The editors of this volume, an economist and a philosopher, served on the High Level Advisory Committee of the Climate Justice Dialogue. They noted the overlap and mutual enforcement between the economic and philosophical discourses on climate justice. But they also noted the great need for these strands to come together to support the public and policy discourse. This volume is the result.

scholarly journals Confidence in Local, National, and International Scientists on Climate Change

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 272
Author(s):  
Aaron C. Sparks ◽  
Heather Hodges ◽  
Sarah Oliver ◽  
Eric R. A. N. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
News Media ◽  
Internet Survey ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Scientific Report ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
Change Beliefs

In many public policy areas, such as climate change, news media reports about scientific research play an important role. In presenting their research, scientists are providing guidance to the public regarding public policy choices. How do people decide which scientists and scientific claims to believe? This is a question we address by drawing on the psychology of persuasion. We propose the hypothesis that people are more likely to believe local scientists than national or international scientists. We test this hypothesis with an experiment embedded in a national Internet survey. Our experiment yielded null findings, showing that people do not discount or ignore research findings on climate change if they come from Europe instead of Washington-based scientists or a leading university in a respondent’s home state. This reinforces evidence that climate change beliefs are relatively stable, based on party affiliation, and not malleable based on the source of the scientific report.

scholarly journals Marine and coastal environmental education in the context of global climate changes - synthesis and subsidies for ReBentos (Coastal Benthic Habitats Monitoring Network)

2016 ◽  
Vol 64 (spe2) ◽  
pp. 137-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flávio Augusto S. Berchez ◽  
Natalia Pirani Ghilardi-Lopes ◽  
Monica Dorigo Correia ◽  
Hilda Helena Sovierzoski ◽  
Alexandre de Gusmão Pedrini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Monitoring Network ◽  
School Students ◽  
Global Climate Changes ◽  
Conceptual Background ◽  
The Media ◽  
Didactic Material

Abstract As changes in coastal and marine environments are expected to negatively affect Brazilian ecosystems, the importance of Marine Environmental Education (MEE) comes to the fore. However, so far only 32 contributions related to this issue have been published in Brazil. The MEE workgroup of ReBentos aims at promoting EE and the communication of marine ecological research to the scholastic public as a whole, as well as to groups which exert an influence on general perception, such as the media, politicians, and scientists. This paper presents an overview of the initiatives of MEE in Brazil, with emphasis on the ReBentos projects and guidelines. The conceptual background of action is based on the Rio'92 Treaty on Environmental Education, thereby implying an MEE with Transdisciplinar, emancipatory and reflexive characteristics, directed to changes in values, principles and attitudes. During the period 2011 to 2015, 10 projects were developed from Alagoas to Santa Catarina States, involving the development, implementation and testing through scientific research of 16 MEE activity-models. The didactic material subsequently produced comprised three books and 21 book-chapters. A public of around 6,500 Conservation Unit visitors, 250 public school teachers and 800 high school students have been impacted to date. To act as monitors and multipliers, 250 undergraduate students and professionals were trained. Research project evaluation generated the publication of nine papers. As a further step, the need for protocol elaboration for each model is placed in evidence, in order to direct and facilitate future initiatives.

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