Associate Professor University of Northern Colorado, Colorado, United States
Background/Question/Methods
To develop targeted climate change curricula, it is imperative to understand how students perceive the localized effects of climate change and what factors contribute to them seeing these effects. Our work studies factors that contribute to undergraduate biology students seeing the local effects of climate change. Our research questions include: RQ1) What examples of climate change do undergraduate biology students describe occur in their home state? RQ2) Which variables help predict whether students see the local effects of climate change (e.g., psychological distance, connection to nature)? We used a mixed-methods quantitatively driven, parallel research design to address our research questions. We used a survey of several instruments and open response questions to measure students’ connection to nature, recognition, acceptance, and psychological distance of climate change. This survey was administered to students across four universities in CO and NC. Second, we conducted semi-structured interviews with a subset of fifteen participants. We used content analysis to describe the localized effects of climate change that students recognize (RQ1), we built a binary logistic regression model to address our research questions and determine significant variables (RQ2), and we performed thematic coding of two interview questions to describe the significance of predictor variables (RQ2).
Results/Conclusions
Our data show a student’s connection to nature, their ability to see climate change across multiple spatial scales, and their geographic location are the three most important factors in predicting a student’s ability to see and discuss climate change within their state. Further, our qualitative data indicate that personal experiences in nature are integral for students connecting with nature and seeing climate change at scales smaller than their state.
Our study identified important factors that instructors should consider when creating their climate change curricula such as a student’s connection to nature and their psychological distance associated with climate change. To increase students’ awareness of local climate change, instructors should incorporate more outside learning activities that foster student connections to natural environments, and focus on creating meaningful and personal experiences in the classroom centered on how climate change is impacting the student’s community.
