General Chemistry Students' Understanding of the Chemistry Underlying Climate Science and the Development of a Two-Tiered Multiple-Choice Diagnostic Instrument

As part of the NSF funded Visualizing the Chemistry of Climate Change (VC3) project, we have developed a chemistry of climate science diagnostic instrument for use in general chemistry courses based on twenty-four student interviews. We have based our interview protocol on misconceptions identified in the research literature and the essential principles of climate change outlined in the CCSP document that pertain to chemistry (CCSP, 2009). The undergraduate student interviews elicited their understanding of the greenhouse effect, global warming, climate change, greenhouse gases, climate, and weather, and the findings from these interviews informed and guided the development of the multiple-choice diagnostic instrument. Our analysis and findings from the interviews indicate that students seem to confuse the greenhouse effect, global warming, and the ozone layer and in terms of chemistry concepts, the students lack a particulate level understanding of greenhouse gases causing them to not fully conceptualize the greenhouse effect and climate change. Details of the findings from the interviews, development of diagnostic instrument, and preliminary findings from the full implementation of the diagnostic instrument will be shared.