HR: 15:10h
AN: ED23C-07    [Abstracts]
TI: How Much of the Science of Climate Change Does the Public Really Understand? Evaluation of University Students' Ideas on the Carbon Cycle
AU: * Madsen, J
EM: jmadsen@udel.edu
AF: Department of Geological Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, United States
AU: Gerhman, E
EM: gehrman@udel.edu
AF: Department of Geological Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, United States
AU: Ford, D
EM: djford@udel.edu
AF: School of Education, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, United States
AB: To be able to effectively bring the science of climate change to educational audiences, it is important to have an understanding of the learners' prior knowledge of the scientific topics involved in the study of climate change. We have evaluated the prior knowledge of the carbon cycle and how human activities affect this cycle using a cohort of university-level students, primarily freshman and sophomore elementary education majors. The movement of carbon through the earth's atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere is a fundamental biogeochemical cycle that influences earth's climate. As a pre-assessment of content knowledge, approximately 170 students enrolled in an introductory-level earth science course were asked to describe what a standard diagram illustrating the carbon cycle shows about how carbon cycles on earth and how energy is involved in this cycle. They were then asked to describe how human activities might affect the carbon cycle. This pre-assessment, assigned and submitted as an on-line activity, was given during the middle portion of the semester before topics directly pertaining to climate change were addressed in the course. These prior knowledge assessments were collected as part of an integrated research project funded by the National Science Foundation designed to study how teachers' science content and pedagogical knowledge develops as they move from university student to practicing K-8 teacher. The initial evaluation of the pre-assessments focused on the identification of alternative conceptions of the carbon cycle and of how human activities affected the cycle. These alternative conceptions were grouped into broad categories. The results show a remarkable lack of understanding of the some of the basic components of the carbon cycle and of how humans may affect this cycle. For example, there was a general lack of understanding of how carbon moves between reservoirs. A popular alternative conception was that carbon, like water, is involved in processes of evaporation, associated with clouds, and falls as precipitation back to the oceans or land. In terms of how human activities might affect the carbon cycle, the most common alternative conception was that human activity is causing pollution and that pollution would disturb the carbon cycle. In only a few cases was the type of pollution or how the pollution would actually disturb the cycle defined. These results demonstrate the crucial need to continue to educate the public about even the most basic concepts underlying the science of climate change and, when engaged in these educational activities, to be aware of the level of prior knowledge of the audiences so as to maximize their learning experience.
DE: 0805 Elementary and secondary education
DE: 0830 Teacher training
DE: 0850 Geoscience education research
DE: 1615 Biogeochemical cycles, processes, and modeling (0412, 0414, 0793, 4805, 4912)
DE: 1622 Earth system modeling (1225)
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting