EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Model-based reasoning to foster environmental and socio-scientific literacy in higher education

Amanda E. Sorensen (), Rebecca C. Jordan, Rachel Shwom, Diane Ebert-May, Cindy Isenhour, Aaron M. McCright and Jennifer Meta Robinson
Additional contact information
Amanda E. Sorensen: Rutgers University
Rebecca C. Jordan: Rutgers University
Rachel Shwom: Rutgers University
Diane Ebert-May: Michigan State University
Cindy Isenhour: University of Maine
Aaron M. McCright: Michigan State University
Jennifer Meta Robinson: Indiana University

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2016, vol. 6, issue 2, No 7, 287-294

Abstract: Abstract The American public’s environmental, scientific, and civic literacies are generally low. While environmental science courses often recognize the human dimensions of environmental problems and solutions, they typically treat such phenomena as matters of opinion and rarely engage with social scientific ways of knowing. Recently, there has been a push in higher education to advance broader scientific literacy, but little attention has been paid to helping students gain an understanding of how socio-scientific evidence and claims are generated. Our work here aims to develop the knowledge framework that facilitates the integration of knowledge across biophysical and social science domains. In this research brief, we report on a project in which an interdisciplinary team developed a model of climate adaptation and mitigation to help teach undergraduates about the coupled human-climate system. The research team found this process to be integral to both thinking and learning about a system with biophysical and social variables. This project is unique in that we then used this model to develop not just curricula but also a framework that can be used to guide and assess interdisciplinary instruction at the collegiate level. This framework allows learners to make sense of complex socio-environmental issues and reason with scientific information from the social and biophysical sciences.

Keywords: Environmental Literacy; Climate Change; Modeling; Socio-scientific; Science education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13412-015-0352-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:6:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s13412-015-0352-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13412

DOI: 10.1007/s13412-015-0352-7

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences is currently edited by Walter A. Rosenbaum

More articles in Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences from Springer, Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-20
Handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:6:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s13412-015-0352-7