- Year 2022
- First Name Yujuan
- Last Name Liu
- Discipline Chemistry
- Institution California State University, Sacramento
Abstract
An interdisciplinary climate change project aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) was designed and evaluated for K−8 preservice science teachers (PSTs) in an undergraduate chemistry course. Three demonstration activities are included in this project, which can be directly adopted and implemented in primary/middle school science classes. This project demonstrated to PSTs how to align the activities with NGSS and the three-dimensional framework, as well as how to select phenomena based on local relevant context and use the 5E instructional model in the teaching of the project. The PSTs also learned chemistry concepts related to climate change through the project. The effects of the climate change project on PSTs’ knowledge, hope, and self-efficacy toward climate change have also been evaluated. After the project, results showed a significant increase in PSTs’ knowledge, hope, and self-efficacy toward climate change. In addition, PSTs’ climate change preknowledge was found to have a positive effect on their hope and self-efficacy toward climate change. This study provides evidence that climate change education programs have positive effects on participants. Because of the delivery convenience and power to reach more participants, this could be of particular interest for science educators to explore ways to support pre-/in-service science teachers through future offerings of high-quality professional development programs.
