Student Explorations of Human Impact on Global Temperatures: Leveraging Student Choice to Promote Knowledge Integration

• In Event: 61.012 - Climate Change Teaching and Learning in the Post-Truth Era: Making Valid Inferences From Scientific Evidence

Abstract

This research explores the impact of student choice on sixth grade students learning through online climate change curriculum. In the curriculum, students investigate human activities that might contribute to rising global temperatures. We compared students who were able to choose which activities to investigate (Choice) with those who had activities assigned (Standard). A two-way ANCOVA indicated that, when controlling for pretest scores, students in the Choice condition demonstrated slightly higher learning gains than those in the Standard condition. Further, there was a significant effect of teacher on learning gains. These results point to the need to better understand how teachers facilitate student interaction with online curriculum and support students in making productive choices.

Authors

• Allison Bradford, University of California - Berkeley

• Beth McBride, University of California - Berkeley

• Dylan Bland, College Park High School

• Marcia Linn, University of California - Berkeley