CHAPTER 2: COMMUNICATING SCIENCE
ACTIVITY 3: COMPREHENSION 1 Read this article and answer the questions that follow.
Students can sway how their parents view CLIMATE CHANGE Parental concern for the climate grew more after children shared what they had been learning
Secondary school students can sway their parents’ views about climate change if they talk about the topic and share what they’ve been learning in school. Most adults have lower levels of concern about climate change than do young people. Yet, it’s adults who have the power to aff ect the policies contributing to climate change. A study shows that adolescents may be able to raise their parents’ concerns about human impacts on climate.
Young people have good reasons to worry about climate change. Rising levels of greenhouse gases have already brought about more severe storms, droughts and other types of extreme weather. Sea levels are rising in many places. Wildfi res threaten other areas. Increasing temperatures are aff ecting food and water supplies. Plant and animal habitats are changing. Even human health is at risk. And if people don’t act soon, the impacts will only worsen.
For a new study, teachers used a new curriculum with 10- to 14-year olds. Students wrote blog posts about what they learned and shared those posts with others. The students also interviewed their parents. Someone might ask her dad, for instance, what changes he’d seen in their home town’s weather over time. The children were not told what to say to their parents.
The new curriculum raised teenagers and parents’ level of concern. The researchers think that’s because students were talking about climate-related issues a lot at home.
Before and after Fifteen secondary school teachers were randomly assigned to either of two groups. One, the test group, received training on how to use the new curriculum before introducing it to students. Teachers in the control group taught their schools’ regular lessons on climate change.
The researchers then surveyed the kids and their parents before and after the school lessons on climate change. Parents and students in both groups showed more concern about climate change after the lessons. But families where kids had been in the test group showed the biggest changes.
The new curriculum seemed most eff ective with the male parent and those who held conservative political views. Why? One reason might be that parents tend to trust their children. They may be less likely to think of their sons or daughters as having attitudes about climate change driven by political reasons. So these parents may now be more willing to listen and learn from them.
Parents of girls also were more likely to show more concern about climate change. Other studies fi nd that girls in this age group usually have better communication skills than boys.
Adapted from: D. Lawson et al. Children can foster climate change concern among their parents. Nature Climate Change. Published online 6 May, 2019.
UNIT 1: WORKING LIKE A SCIENTIST
9
NATURE OF SCIENCE
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