Undergraduate student conceptions of climate change impacts on animals

Abstract

Climate change is a critical environmental issue and is a recommended core concept in the Ecological Society of America's 4-Dimensional Ecology Education framework. Limited work describes K-12 students' conceptions of the biotic impacts of climate change, yet research is lacking to explore undergraduate students' conceptions on this topic. Our goal was to describe undergraduate student conceptions of the biotic outcomes of climate change, and characterize how these student conceptions of animal responses to climate change align with accepted scientific ideas. We used an interpretive qualitative research design and interviewed 13 undergraduate students who were enrolled in either an introductory biology or general ecology course. Through two independent codings of the same dataset, we separately addressed each of our research goals. Prior to this study, we identified three general biotic outcomes from climate change, which were confirmed by outside experts: changes to an animal's Growth and Survival, their Reproduction, or their Distribution. Our student interviewees as a whole mentioned all three of these outcomes, and most individuals mentioned all three in their responses. Additionally, we found that most student ideas were aligned with Scientific conceptions, while a third of student ideas contained some scientific conceptions but were incomplete. Only a small percent of conceptions voiced in our sample were identified as alternative conceptions that did not align with accepted scientific ideas. These findings are important for educators who teach climate change, as they suggest that undergraduate students come to our classes with productive resources; however, our findings also identify concepts where students may struggle or enter classrooms with a more incomplete understanding.

Student reasonings and cognitive biases in climate change predictions

“…Our careful review of their explanations further determined that these explanations were often accurate, reflecting key biological processes. Holt et al (2021) also noted the capacity for undergraduate biology students to recognize and relate major ecological processes to climate change. Our respondents leveraged the information provided through their Observations of elements within the scenes, into ecological patterns and processes when providing their arguments for their choices.…”

“…We chose to use one-on-one interviews, which are noted as a successful technique to gauge student conceptions and alternative conceptions in science (Soeharto et al, 2019). Our research team conducted several rounds of revisions with our interview protocol (see Holt et al, 2021) to narrow student responses about biotic impacts of climate change. The current study was part of a larger research project aimed at clarifying student conceptions about the biotic impacts of climate change with the ultimate goal of developing a concept inventory on this topic (Holt et al, unpublished).…”

“…We found that many biology undergraduate students understand climate change sufficiently to make accurate predictions of how it will affect ecosystems. Most recognize that climate change is a notable disturbance that will alter ecosystems, but also do not claim a catastrophic fate noted in other research (Holt et al, 2021). The present study not only clarifies the accuracy of student conclusions about climate change but describes their thinking about the processes involved and perception of the degree of change.…”

“…Despite reports of climate alternative conceptions in other studies (da Rosa, 2022;Fleming et al, 2021), we found that biology college students from our sample predicted accurate outcomes of climate change. Other studies similarly account how students proficiently identify scientific outcomes of climate change in undergraduate science (Holt et al, 2021) and nonscience students (Huxster et al, 2015).…”

“…Keller et al (2019) noted how combining transdisciplinary and moderate constructivist approaches in the classroom increases climate change understanding in teenagers. Holt et al (2021) found that students enrolled in an introductory biology class or ecology class were able to identify three biotic outcomes of climate change, changes to an animal's growth and survival, their reproduction, or their distribution. Unfortunately, despite acceptance of climate change (Fleming et al, 2021) or climate‐focused education, many undergraduate students hold alternative conceptions (Driver & Easley, 1978) about climate change, such as the hole in ozone being the cause of global warming and climate change (Wachholz et al, 2014) or conflation of weather and climate (Bostrom, 2017).…”