Asynchronous student engagement in analysis of climate data achieves learning objectives related to climate change understanding, statistical competence, and climate anxiety
Learning in asynchronous online environments has gained importance over the last several decades, and educational environment shifts from the COVID-19 pandemic appear to have increased this need. Science educators and students need information about which approaches work in the asynchronous environm...
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ftunivarizona:oai:repository.arizona.edu:10150/673988 2024-09-15T18:12:04+00:00 Asynchronous student engagement in analysis of climate data achieves learning objectives related to climate change understanding, statistical competence, and climate anxiety Meixner, T. Ciancarelli, B. Farrell, E.P. García, S.D. Josek, T. Kelly, M.M. Meister, P. Soule, D. Darner, R. Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Arizona 2023-03-29 http://hdl.handle.net/10150/673988 https://doi.org/10.1080/10899995.2023.2193810 en eng Routledge Meixner, T., Ciancarelli, B., Farrell, E. P., García, D. S., Josek, T., Kelly, M. M., … Darner, R. (2023). Asynchronous student engagement in analysis of climate data achieves learning objectives related to climate change understanding, statistical competence, and climate anxiety. Journal of Geoscience Education, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/10899995.2023.2193810 1089-9995 doi:10.1080/10899995.2023.2193810 http://hdl.handle.net/10150/673988 Journal of Geoscience Education © 2023 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC . This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Journal of Geoscience Education asynchronous climate change anxiety Climate change education quantitative literacy Article text 2023 ftunivarizona https://doi.org/10.1080/10899995.2023.2193810 2024-08-12T23:39:50Z Learning in asynchronous online environments has gained importance over the last several decades, and educational environment shifts from the COVID-19 pandemic appear to have increased this need. Science educators and students need information about which approaches work in the asynchronous environment where informal feedback tends to be reduced, compared to other teaching modalities. In this study, we asynchronously implemented a learning module across 5 institutions that guided students (N = 199) from prescriptive data analysis through guided inquiry and eventually to open inquiry. The module focuses on the science behind climate change. Students work with the same authentic data sets used by professional scientists to examine geologic history and causes of climate change. By analyzing contemporary atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperature data and then using the 800,000-year record available from the Vostok ice core proxy record of atmospheric properties, students identify the causes of climate change and discover the unprecedented nature of recent atmospheric changes. Using a pre/post-module assessment, we demonstrate improvement in students’ understanding of climate change processes and statistical methods used to analyze data. However, there was no evidence that the module develops students’ scientific reasoning about the relationship between causation and correlation. Students maintained that correlation is not causation, even when a robust causal mechanism (i.e., the greenhouse effect) explains the link between atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperature. Finally, our analysis indicated that generally, anxiety about climate change was reduced during the module, such that students become less anxious about the climate change the more they learn about it. However, science-denying students experienced much higher anxiety about climate change than students who accepted the scientific consensus about climate change. Climate science-dissenting students were so few in this study that a statistical comparison ... Article in Journal/Newspaper ice core The University of Arizona: UA Campus Repository Journal of Geoscience Education 1 11 |
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The University of Arizona: UA Campus Repository |
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asynchronous climate change anxiety Climate change education quantitative literacy |
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asynchronous climate change anxiety Climate change education quantitative literacy Meixner, T. Ciancarelli, B. Farrell, E.P. García, S.D. Josek, T. Kelly, M.M. Meister, P. Soule, D. Darner, R. Asynchronous student engagement in analysis of climate data achieves learning objectives related to climate change understanding, statistical competence, and climate anxiety |
topic_facet |
asynchronous climate change anxiety Climate change education quantitative literacy |
description |
Learning in asynchronous online environments has gained importance over the last several decades, and educational environment shifts from the COVID-19 pandemic appear to have increased this need. Science educators and students need information about which approaches work in the asynchronous environment where informal feedback tends to be reduced, compared to other teaching modalities. In this study, we asynchronously implemented a learning module across 5 institutions that guided students (N = 199) from prescriptive data analysis through guided inquiry and eventually to open inquiry. The module focuses on the science behind climate change. Students work with the same authentic data sets used by professional scientists to examine geologic history and causes of climate change. By analyzing contemporary atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperature data and then using the 800,000-year record available from the Vostok ice core proxy record of atmospheric properties, students identify the causes of climate change and discover the unprecedented nature of recent atmospheric changes. Using a pre/post-module assessment, we demonstrate improvement in students’ understanding of climate change processes and statistical methods used to analyze data. However, there was no evidence that the module develops students’ scientific reasoning about the relationship between causation and correlation. Students maintained that correlation is not causation, even when a robust causal mechanism (i.e., the greenhouse effect) explains the link between atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperature. Finally, our analysis indicated that generally, anxiety about climate change was reduced during the module, such that students become less anxious about the climate change the more they learn about it. However, science-denying students experienced much higher anxiety about climate change than students who accepted the scientific consensus about climate change. Climate science-dissenting students were so few in this study that a statistical comparison ... |
author2 |
Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Arizona |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Meixner, T. Ciancarelli, B. Farrell, E.P. García, S.D. Josek, T. Kelly, M.M. Meister, P. Soule, D. Darner, R. |
author_facet |
Meixner, T. Ciancarelli, B. Farrell, E.P. García, S.D. Josek, T. Kelly, M.M. Meister, P. Soule, D. Darner, R. |
author_sort |
Meixner, T. |
title |
Asynchronous student engagement in analysis of climate data achieves learning objectives related to climate change understanding, statistical competence, and climate anxiety |
title_short |
Asynchronous student engagement in analysis of climate data achieves learning objectives related to climate change understanding, statistical competence, and climate anxiety |
title_full |
Asynchronous student engagement in analysis of climate data achieves learning objectives related to climate change understanding, statistical competence, and climate anxiety |
title_fullStr |
Asynchronous student engagement in analysis of climate data achieves learning objectives related to climate change understanding, statistical competence, and climate anxiety |
title_full_unstemmed |
Asynchronous student engagement in analysis of climate data achieves learning objectives related to climate change understanding, statistical competence, and climate anxiety |
title_sort |
asynchronous student engagement in analysis of climate data achieves learning objectives related to climate change understanding, statistical competence, and climate anxiety |
publisher |
Routledge |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10150/673988 https://doi.org/10.1080/10899995.2023.2193810 |
genre |
ice core |
genre_facet |
ice core |
op_source |
Journal of Geoscience Education |
op_relation |
Meixner, T., Ciancarelli, B., Farrell, E. P., García, D. S., Josek, T., Kelly, M. M., … Darner, R. (2023). Asynchronous student engagement in analysis of climate data achieves learning objectives related to climate change understanding, statistical competence, and climate anxiety. Journal of Geoscience Education, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/10899995.2023.2193810 1089-9995 doi:10.1080/10899995.2023.2193810 http://hdl.handle.net/10150/673988 Journal of Geoscience Education |
op_rights |
© 2023 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC . This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1080/10899995.2023.2193810 |
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Journal of Geoscience Education |
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1 |
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11 |
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