Climate change: confronting student ideas

Students bring prior knowledge about science to our courses, yet sometimes their information is inaccurate. The Beedlow et al. article in this issue (p 315-322) provides a foundation for addressing several incomplete, naive, or erroneous ideas that have been identified in students' think? ing about the carbon cycle (Carlsson 2002; Ebert-May et al. 2003), what scientists know about the relationship between plant growth and rising atmospheric COz concentrations, and the relationship between carbon and nitrogen cycles. The scientific teaching approach for this article involves three components: learning goals, instructional strategies that are inquiry-driven and student-centered, and assess? ment (ie obtaining data that measure student achievement of learning goals). The learning goals are based on the ques? tion: "What do students need to know to demonstrate a genuine understanding of the carbon cycle and its relation to global climate change?" The instructional strategy chosen for this example is based on the learning cycle, an instruc? tional model that enables students to address misconcep? tions and develop more accurate understanding (Posner et al. 1982; Kennedy 2004). In this case, students actively confront their current ideas about global warming by exploring the question "Where does the carbon go?" (a section in Beedlow et al. 2004) and ultimately come to a deeper under? standing of the carbon cycle. Assessments probe students' understanding and misconceptions before, during, and after instruction, to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching and learning.