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Urban High School Students’ Critical Science Agency: Conceptual Understandings and Environmental Actions Around Climate Change

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Abstract

This study investigates how the enactment of a climate change curriculum supports students’ development of critical science agency, which includes students developing deep understandings of science concepts and the ability to take action at the individual and community levels. We examined the impact of a four to six week urban ecology curriculum on students from three different urban high schools in the USA. Data collection included pre and posttest written assessments from all students (n = 75) and pre and post interviews from focal students (n = 22) to examine how students’ conceptual understandings, beliefs and environmental actions changed. Our analyses showed that at the beginning of the curriculum, the majority of students believed that climate change was occurring; yet, they had limited conceptual understandings about climate change and were engaged in limited environmental actions. By the end of the curriculum, students had a significant increase in their understanding of climate change and the majority of students reported they were now engaged in actions to limit their personal impact on climate change. These findings suggest that believing a scientific theory (e.g. climate change) is not sufficient for critical science agency; rather, conceptual understandings and understandings of personal actions impact students’ choices. We recommend that future climate change curriculum focus on supporting students’ development of critical science agency by addressing common student misconceptions and by focusing on how students’ actions can have significant impacts on the environment.

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Notes

  1. In the interview, we used the phrase “global warming” instead of “climate change”. Climate change is accepted as the more appropriate term, because it encompasses all of the long term changes in weather patterns and does not just focus on the surface temperature increases. We initially used global warming on the pre interview, because it seemed more prevalent in the media and that students would be more familiar with the term. We then wanted to keep the language consistent on the post interview.

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Acknowledgements

This research was conducted as part of the Urban EcoLab project, supported in part by the National Science Foundation grant ESI 0607010. Any opinions expressed in this work are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent either those of the funding agency or Boston College. We would like to thank our colleagues at Boston College and the Urban Ecology Institute for their work on this project.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lynch School of Education, Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467, USA

    Katherine L. McNeill

  2. San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA

    Meredith Houle Vaughn

Authors
  1. Katherine L. McNeill
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  2. Meredith Houle Vaughn
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katherine L. McNeill.

Appendices

Appendix A: Pre and Post Test Questions

Multiple-Choice Items

  1. 3.

    Climate change

    1. a.

      is only caused by human activities

    2. b.

      explains a previous summer’s heat wave

    3. c.

      is a change in long-term weather patterns

    4. d.

      explains the decrease in available fossil fuels

  2. 9.

    Greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere trap:

    1. a.

      heat, but not visible and ultraviolet light

    2. b.

      visible light, but not heat and ultraviolet light

    3. c.

      ultraviolet light, but not heat and visible light

    4. d.

      heat, visible and ultraviolet light

  3. 10.

    Carbon sequestration is

    1. a.

      The production of carbon dioxide by cars

    2. b.

      The amount of carbon that is produced by burning one tree

    3. c.

      The amount of carbon dioxide that is in the Earth’s atmosphere

    4. d.

      The removal and storage of carbon from the Earth’s atmosphere

  4. 12.

    If the earth had no greenhouse effect, the average surface temperature would be:

    1. a.

      lower than present

    2. b.

      higher than present

    3. c.

      the same as it is now

    4. d.

      scientists just aren’t sure

  5. 14.

    Which of the following is NOT the result of global climate change

    1. a.

      storms become more intense

    2. b.

      ocean levels decrease

    3. c.

      timing of season changes

    4. d.

      tropical diseases spread north

  6. 15.

    The primary cause for the Earth’s greenhouse effect is:

    1. a.

      Water vapor in the atmosphere

    2. b.

      An increasingly hot sun

    3. c.

      Increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

    4. d.

      Decreasing ozone levels in the atmosphere

Open-ended Item

  1. 2.

    What are three human behaviors that impact climate change? Why?

Appendix B: Interview Questions

Question 2 was altered on the post interview to acknowledge that students had just completed a curriculum unit focused on global climate change.

  1. 1.

    What comes to mind when you hear the phrase global warming? What do you think it means?

  2. 2.

    PRE—Where have you heard about or gotten information about global warming? What did you learn from that source?

  3. 2.

    POST—What have you learned specifically about global warming from this class? Can you explain the scientific process of global warming?

  4. 3.

    Do you think global warming is occurring? Why or why not?

  5. 4.

    Is it an issue that concerns you? Why or why not?

    1. a.

      If consequences do not come up—What do you think are the consequences of global warming?

  6. 5.

    Are you currently doing anything personally to limit your impact on global warming?

Appendix C: Rubric for Open-Ended Assessment

Open Ended Question: ‘What are three human behaviors that impact climate change? Why?’

Code

Level

0

1

2

3

4

Three Human Behaviors

Provides no appropriate behaviors.

Provides 1 appropriate behavior.

Provides 2 appropriate behaviors.

Provides 3 appropriate behaviors.

N/A

May include inappropriate behaviors such as: throwing trash, spitting, using hair spray, and cigarette smoking.

May include appropriate behaviors such as: driving cars, burning fossil fuels, running factories that create pollution, creating green spaces, cutting down trees, and buying local (or non-local) food.

May include appropriate behaviors such as: driving cars, burning fossil fuels, cars or factories producing greenhouse gases, creating green spaces, cutting down trees, and buying local (or non-local) food.

May include appropriate behaviors such as: driving cars, burning fossil fuels, cars or factories producing greenhouse gases, creating green spaces, cutting down trees, and buying local (or non-local) food.*

Explanation for why the behaviors cause global warming

No explanation or an inappropriate explanation.

1 of any of the following: Greenhouse gases OR Heat OR Energy OR Weather patterns

2 of any of the following: Greenhouse gases OR Heat OR Energy OR Weather patterns

Greenhouse gases + Heat OR Energy + Weather pattern

Greenhouse gases + Heat + Energy + Weather pattern

May include an inappropriate explanation such as—Using coal to burn is dangerous because people inhale that and get asthma.

Describes how the behaviors either increase or decrease greenhouse gases. OR Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere OR Greenhouse gases increase the amount of energy in the atmosphere. OR This energy/heat causes long-term weather patterns to change.

Describes how the behaviors either increase or decrease greenhouse gases. OR Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere OR Greenhouse gases increase the amount of energy in the atmosphere. OR This energy/heat causes long-term weather patterns to change.

Describes how the behaviors either increase or decrease greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere OR Greenhouse gases increase the amount of energy in the atmosphere. This energy/heat causes long-term weather patterns to change.

Describes how the behaviors either increase or decrease greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases trap heat which increases the amount of energy in the atmosphere. This energy causes long-term weather patterns to change.

*Points were not taken off for mentioning inappropriate behaviors. The levels were only based on the number of appropriate behaviors mentioned.

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McNeill, K.L., Vaughn, M.H. Urban High School Students’ Critical Science Agency: Conceptual Understandings and Environmental Actions Around Climate Change. Res Sci Educ 42, 373–399 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-010-9202-5

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