WHAT DO OUR STUDENTS KNOW ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE?

While students are clearly concerned about climate change, recent work suggests that many have significant knowledge gaps and misconceptions about the science behind it. I examined student understanding of fundamental climate change concepts in undergraduate geology courses at the University of St. Thomas using data from completed questionnaires (n = 358) and audio-taped interviews (n = 16) to generate a preliminary list of student misconceptions on this important topic. Results show that prior to a course or course unit on climate change, students had numerous misconceptions about how the greenhouse effect works, many of them incorrectly explaining that the Earth’s ozone layer was involved in the process or that it stems from the trapping of greenhouse gases themselves (rather than longwave radiation) in the atmosphere. This result is consistent with previous findings for students and the general public. Students also revealed misconceptions or knowledge gaps about feedback loops, the effects of melting sea ice on other earth systems, the difference between weather and climate, and general trends in the planet’s climate history. For example, only 12% (13%) of queried students could adequately explain the concept of negative and (positive) feedback loops and some students erroneously believe that the Earth’s climate has never been as warm as it is today. I also found significant knowledge gaps and misconceptions about what constitutes good evidence of human influence on climate. When students were asked to provide examples of this, about two-thirds mentioned the increase in atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases or the consumption of energy, such as fossil fuels as a factor. This is clearly a positive result. But less than 10% mentioned historical or longer-term climate data as evidence of human influence, and examples of misconceptions or erroneous evidence were found on just over a quarter of the responses (26%). The most commonly cited of these was that the destruction of the ozone layer is evidence of human influence on climate. Students showed marked improvement after instruction on climate change science, for example giving more sophisticated responses about the evidence for human influence on climate, but some misconceptions remained intact.