How participating in climate action projects affects students' understandings and perspectives about global climate change

Abstract

I recognized I have avoided teaching climate change as an entire unit due to the uncomfortable nature of the subject and the fear of push-back from both students and parents. I also recognized the students in my district have had little to no exposure to climate science in any curriculum and understand that, if our goal is to support scientific literacy in our students, climate literacy needs to be a part of the program. I developed a climate science unit for four physical science classes which included the science behind climate change, investigations into climate solutions and participation in climate action projects. Research has shown that participation in climate action helps to improve attitudes regarding climate change. I wanted to find out how student understandings and perspectives about climate change might improve following the implementation of the unit. Students took pre- and post-surveys regarding their understanding of climate trends, cause and effects of climate change, their own perspectives of climate change, and their levels of interest in taking action regarding climate change. Other data was collected through pre- and post-focus group interviews, student reflections to prompts at different stages of the unit development, teacher journaling and communication with a collaborating teacher. Overall, student responses from the surveys, interviews, and reflections showed an increased understanding and appreciation for the impacts of climate change. A notable improvement was seen in the number of students who understood that current global climate change is not caused by natural processes. A second notable improvement was in the number of students who felt empowered to take actions to help reduce climate change. It is difficult to determine the impact that participating in the climate action projects alone had on student attitudes about climate change, but the gains I saw give me encouragement to incorporate this unit into my curriculum and to share what I have learned with colleagues to develop a cross-curricular approach to global climate change.