1 Geoscience Education I: Things That Work in Field and Classroom

Sunday, 31 October 2010
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Room 201

USING MANDATORY ONLINE DISCUSSIONS TO FACILITATE STUDENTS' SCIENTIFIC UNDERSTANDING OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Paper number: 1-16
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 11:45 AM – 12:00 PM

Authors

Abstract

Although many students entered our geology classrooms with robust opinions on the legitimacy and implications of climate change, the vast majority acknowledged via pre-survey that their opinions were acquired from sources other than peer-reviewed scientific articles, reports, or summaries. Therefore, in order to promote a critical analysis of the popular and/or politicized media reports on the climate change issue, expose student misconceptions, and emphasize the nature of science, we randomly assigned online students in Earth history courses (n = 10, 20, 25, 29) to discussion groups (n = 8) following a pre-survey that probed incoming opinions and knowledge about climate change. Throughout the semester, the instructor posted weekly videos, graphics, and scientific reports whose content formed the basis for critical thinking questions. Students accessed the online media, responded to discussion questions, and debated the content and conclusions with their online peers as part of the mandatory discussion requirement. At the semester’s conclusion, each discussion group summarized a consensus on climate change, and students completed post-surveys that measured their attitudes and knowledge of climate change science.

Measurable gains were made during the semester on students’ scientific understanding of climate change. At the semester’s end, 62% of the students utilized peer-reviewed scientific journals as their primary source material for climate change research. Students also exhibited gains in their understanding of IPCC reports, the role of greenhouse gases, and the future implications for increasing global temperatures. While 80% of the students acknowledged at the semester’s end that the scientific process corrects itself through replication, only 33% of the student population believed that the media-reported “Climate Gate” issue did not imply that the scientific community manipulates data for political agendas. Although student access to scientific source materials, coupled with mandatory online discussions, resulted in greater scientific understanding of climate change for the majority of our students, there remained some resistant ideologies to the understanding of the nature of science.