Fostering Climate Consciousness Among Elementary Students Through PBL

• In Event: Student engagement in PBL and PjBL learning

Abstract

This qualitative practitioner inquiry investigates how climate-focused problem-based learning (PBL) can foster climate consciousness among elementary students within accountability-driven school contexts. Grounded in critical pedagogy, eco-justice frameworks, and place-based learning, the study examines a 12-week third-grade Solar Power project integrating science, engineering, mathematics, literacy, and arts. Data sources include student questionnaires, artifacts, teacher focus groups, and planning documents. Findings highlight students’ embodied, emotional, and moral engagement with climate issues, emergent agency through local ecological action, while institutional barriers limited sustained, justice-oriented inquiry. This work contributes practitioner-led, elementary-focused scholarship on climate change education, illuminating possibilities for transformative, systemic approaches to ecological justice in public schools.

Author

• Anne E. Martin, Georgia State University