The impact of informal science education on the attitudes of diverse audiences on the effects of climate change

Background/Question/Methods: The goals of achieving a high level of climate change literacy and positive attitudes for actions to combat climate change in the general public seems to be fading; recent studies on attitudes towards climate change in the United States show a dramatic increase in skepticism over the last year, fueled in part by a change in the media environment and by a concerted effort to use tactics that were successful in the tobacco and evolution debates to confuse the public. Recent framing and agenda setting in the media allows for big swings in opinion in part because public understanding of the underlying science of climate change and global warming remains poor at best, fueled by the intrinsically abstract and difficult nature of the subject and the challenges for formal and informal education that result. Broad levels of climate change literacy require a transdisciplinary approach to education that blends education, learning, social, behavioral and economic sciences with global earth system science in ways that are uncommon. While knowledge about climate change science is not required for individual action, a more sophisticated public discourse is necessary to prevent broad swings in public attitudes. Informal science education, or more precisely, informal or free-choice learning in science museums, zoos, aquariums, parks, planetariums, or through reading articles, books, or pages on the internet, or by watching science documentaries on TV and listing to the radio, are ways to inform individuals and the public debate on climate change. While most informal experiences such as exhibitions on global climate change and global warming may not teach fundamental climate science to the majority of visitors and audiences, and only recent ones include extended opportunities for individual and collective action to combat global warming, there is evidence that they create basic awareness and interest, and provide legitimacy for the subject matter.

Results/Conclusions: A study on 700 students who visited a planetarium where they saw two different shows on climate change, using a pre-, post- delayed-post design with a written survey, for instance, showed that a brief informal experience can influence behavioral intentions and follow-up behavior (see Storksdieck, 2006). Informal science learning experiences are important components within the overall tapestry of learning experiences in providing trusted information to those who are receptive and who need sources of information they can point to in order to sustain their knowledge and their attitudes.