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Climate Change Activities: A Possible Means to Promote Understanding and Reduce Misconceptions About Acid Rain, Global Warming, Greenhouse Effect and Ozone Layer Depletion Among Secondary School Students

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Overcoming Students' Misconceptions in Science

Abstract

This study aimed to eliminate misconceptions related to global climate change identified among Form Four (equivalent to grade 10) biology students using a list of five climate change activities (CCAs). In this study, a quasi-experimental design involving 73 students from two intact classes were randomly assigned to comparison (N = 38) and experimental (N = 35) groups. A quasi-experimental design was used to measure the effectiveness of climate change activities in promoting understanding and reducing misconceptions about climate change issues particularly about acid rain, greenhouse effect, global warming and ozone layer depletion. The independent t-test analyses performed on each issue indicate that the differences between the comparison and experimental groups’ mean scores are significantly different with a higher mean value obtained by the experimental group. These results signify that the CCAs facilitated understanding and reduced misconceptions. Interviews with randomly selected students from both the experiment and comparison groups further validated the findings of the quantitative analysis.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the grant from The Sumitomo Foundation Fiscal 2014 Grant for Japan-Related Research Projects (Num: 1484421).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

    Chua Kah Heng & Mageswary Karpudewan

  2. Dato Lela Pahlawan Secondary School, Padang Serai, Kedah, Malaysia

    Kasturi Chandrakesan

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  1. Chua Kah Heng
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  2. Mageswary Karpudewan
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  3. Kasturi Chandrakesan
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Correspondence to Chua Kah Heng .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

    Mageswary Karpudewan

  2. School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

    Ahmad Nurulazam Md Zain

  3. Science and Mathematics Education Centre (SMEC), Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

    A.L. Chandrasegaran

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Heng, C.K., Karpudewan, M., Chandrakesan, K. (2017). Climate Change Activities: A Possible Means to Promote Understanding and Reduce Misconceptions About Acid Rain, Global Warming, Greenhouse Effect and Ozone Layer Depletion Among Secondary School Students. In: Karpudewan, M., Md Zain, A., Chandrasegaran, A. (eds) Overcoming Students' Misconceptions in Science. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3437-4_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3437-4_17

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