HR: 17:35h
AN: ED24A-06    [Abstracts]
TI: A Perspective on Climate Change Education and Directions Forward
AU: * Cordero, E C
EM: cordero@met.sjsu.edu
AF: Department of Meteorology, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA 95192-0104, United States
AU: Todd, A
EM: AnneMarie.Todd@sjsu.edu
AF: Department of Communication Studies, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA 94192- 0112, United States
AB: With the current debate on global warming shifting from science questions linking humans and rising temperatures towards more policy focused questions of how to best mitigate against future warming, it's unclear if the public is adequately educated to enable informed decision-making. The results from a series of surveys given to primarily non-science undergraduates from diverse backgrounds indicate that a majority of these students harbor significant misconceptions about the basic science related to global warming, and the relationship between global warming and personal energy use. Our study supports the notion that effective climate change education should emphasize the connection with personal consumption, so that as students matriculate, they gain awareness of the impacts of their energy use in multiple aspects of their lives. This interdisciplinary project seeks to develop and assess various educational tools for teaching climate change and to evaluate these approaches over a period of years.
DE: 0810 Post-secondary education
DE: 0815 Informal education
DE: 0840 Evaluation and assessment
DE: 0855 Diversity
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly