Pre-existing understanding of Primary school students about natural disasters caused by climate change


Published: Sep 13, 2024
Keywords:
Natural Disasters Climate change Primary school Education for Sustainability
Dimitrios Mavrenis
Georgios Malandrakis
Abstract

The goal of this study was to describe the process of developing a tool to detect 3rd-6th grades Primary School students’ pre-existing understanding regarding the link between climate change and Natural Disasters. The questionnaire includes four main categories of natural disasters (forest fires, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes), each of which examines five variables of students' understanding about climate change (content knowledge, link to climate change, previous experience, knowledge about the ability to cope/manage events, previous education, and intention to be engaged).  The questionnaire was piloted in October 2023 with 39 students from Grades 3, 5 and 6. The results showed that the students possess knowledge about fire, flood, and earthquake, but they do not know much about tornadoes.

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References
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