The purpose of this SGER is to develop measures of students' conception of climate change and examine the conjecture that environmentally sustainable decisions and behavior are related to these conceptions of the natural world. Specifically, the study asks: (1) Can mental models of climate change be measured reliably, validly and efficiently to provide a gauge on students' understanding: (2) if so, what mental models of Climate Change do middle, high school and college students hold? (3) What is the correlation between students' mental models and their demographic characteristics, reported behavioral and policy preferences regarding Climate Change?
The project is timely because environmental issues are receiving wide media coverage and much public discussion. Improving our understanding of what kinds of education interventions alter students' behaviors around climate change is of national importance. The study would initiate an innovative approach to building the empirical knowledge base about how and why secondary school and college students' alter their behaviors around the critical issue of climate change.
