ERIC Number: EJ1119633
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016-Nov
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0021-9584
EISSN: N/A
"An Inconvenient Truth"--Is It Still Effective at Familiarizing Students with Global Warming?
Griep, Mark A.; Reimer, Kaitlin
Journal of Chemical Education, v93 n11 p1886-1893 Nov 2016
Chemistry courses for nonscience majors emphasize chemical concepts and the relationship of chemical knowledge to everyday life while teaching the utility of quantitative analysis. As an introduction to the topic of global warming, the first half of "An Inconvenient Truth," released in 2006, has been shown annually since 2008 in the chemistry course for nonscience majors at a large public university. The initial goal of the current study was to determine the effectiveness of this introduction. Even though the results indicate that the percentage of students who have watched this documentary has declined over the years, nearly all students enjoy learning from this relatively jargon-free, broad overview. The documentary causes students to formulate questions about the data presented and to want to learn what has been done about this issue since the documentary was released and whether the trends have continued. All of these are then addressed in subsequent lectures. By collecting the data about the documentary's effectiveness over a period of years, it became possible to address the question whether it remains effective at familiarizing students with global warming ten years after its debut.
Descriptors: Climate, Chemistry, Science Instruction, Scientific Concepts, College Students, Nonmajors, Teaching Methods, Films, Documentaries, Weather, Student Attitudes, Scientific Attitudes, Likert Scales, Student Surveys
Division of Chemical Education, Inc and ACS Publications Division of the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 800-227-5558; Tel: 202-872-4600; e-mail: eic@jce.acs.org; Web site: http://pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Nebraska (Lincoln)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A