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Supporting Secondary Students’ Understanding of Earth’s Climate System and Global Climate Change Using EzGCM: A Cross-Sectional Study

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Abstract

Global climate change (GCC) is one of the greatest challenges of our age and a highly significant socio-scientific issue (SSI). Developing secondary students’ understanding about the Earth’s climate and GCC is critical for empowering future citizens and a key focus of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013). In this cross-sectional study, we investigated secondary students’ evidence-based reasoning about GCC grounded in a curricular intervention involving the use of a data-driven, computer-based global climate model—EzGCM—over 3 years with four teachers who adapted the module in their own courses—two secondary science teachers during the Spring of 2018 (year 1), and all four teachers during the Fall of 2018 (year 2) and the Fall of 2019 (year 3). Our research questions were: (i) to what extent has the EzGCM-based curriculum supported students’ conceptual understanding about Earth’s climate and GCC over time? and (ii) in what ways do EzGCM features enhance students’ evidence-based reasoning about Earth’s climate system and GCC? We evaluated students’ evidence-based learning using: (i) pre/post concept inventory and (ii) students’ interviews. Results from the quantitative analyses of a pre- and post-module assessment indicated that student learning gains increased mainly in the third year. Results from the qualitative analysis of student interviews showed that EzGCM helped students use the different graphic outcomes to develop a more robust understanding of the temporal and spatial changes in surface air temperature and CO2, the trends in and relationships between different climate variables, and temperature anomalies. Overall, these results highlight affordances of the EzGCM-based curriculum to support students’ reasoning about Earth’s climate and GCC.

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Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Mark Chandler, Dr. Devarati Bhattacharya, Kim Carroll-Steward, and, most importantly, the students and teachers who have partnered with us to enhance understanding about climate change education.

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grants DRL 1720838 and DRL 1719872. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA

    Silvia-Jessica Mostacedo-Marasovic

  2. Department of Educational, School & Counseling Psychology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA

    Amanda A. Olsen

  3. Department of Curriculum and Instruction & Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA

    Cory T. Forbes

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  1. Silvia-Jessica Mostacedo-Marasovic
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  3. Cory T. Forbes
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Contributions

SJMM: the author has made substantial contribution to the conception, and design of the work; the analysis, and interpretation of data; the drafting and substantial revision of the work; and has approved the submitted version. The author has agreed both to be personally accountable for the author’s own contributions and to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even ones in which the author was not personally involved are appropriately investigated, resolved, and the resolution documented in the literature. AAO: the author has made substantial contribution to the conception, and design of the work; the analysis, and interpretation of data; the drafting and substantial revision of the work; and has approved the submitted version. The author has agreed both to be personally accountable for the author’s own contributions and to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even ones in which the author was not personally involved are appropriately investigated, resolved, and the resolution documented in the literature. CTF: the author has made substantial contribution to the conception, and design of the work; the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data; the drafting and substantial revision of the work; and has approved the submitted version. The author has agreed both to be personally accountable for the author’s own contributions and to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even ones in which the author was not personally involved are appropriately investigated, resolved, and the resolution documented in the literature.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Silvia-Jessica Mostacedo-Marasovic.

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This study has been approved by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Institutional Review Board.

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Mostacedo-Marasovic, SJ., Olsen, A.A. & Forbes, C.T. Supporting Secondary Students’ Understanding of Earth’s Climate System and Global Climate Change Using EzGCM: A Cross-Sectional Study. J Sci Educ Technol 33, 178–194 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-023-10067-8

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