Exploring the Predictors and Outcomes of Middle School Students' Interest in Climate Change Effects on Forests: Results from Two Interventions

Abstract

This thesis explored the development and outcomes of middle school students’ interest in climate change. Research in science education and other domains suggests that, by fostering students’ interest in climate change, it may be possible to increase their climate literacy, foster their mitigation and adaptation actions, and promote their lifelong engagement in this critical issue. The two studies completed for this thesis were conducted within the context of an educational intervention using a new two-week unit, entitled Climate Change and Michigan Forests, during its first two years of implementation in Ann Arbor Public Schools. The first study explored select predictors of students’ interest in climate change effects on forests, and the relationship between their interest in the topic and desire to learn more about it. Data were collected from 308 seventh-graders who participated in the unit using pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. Students had only moderate levels of interest in, and desire to learn more about, climate change effects on forests, and students’ interest in science and in hands-on science activities played larger roles in their development of interest in climate change effects on forests than their perception of climate change risk. Increasing student interest in climate change through short educational interventions is likely to present a formidable challenge, and enhancing students’ perception of climate change risk is unlikely to help educators achieve this goal. The second study explored what effects interest, desire to learn more, and related factors had on students’ learning about climate change effects on forests. Data were collected from 355 treatment and 121 comparison students. Treatment students’ knowledge about climate change increased, but there was no meaningful connection between topic interest and topic knowledge. Instead, post-intervention knowledge was predicted by pre-intervention knowledge, overall interest in science, and the personal and societal importance students assigned to climate change. Different strategies appear to be required for supporting development of interest in, versus learning about, climate change. Emphasizing climate change’s importance, however, is likely to support either outcome.