Exploring Elementary Students’ Understanding of Energy and Climate Change

As environmental changes become a significant societal issue, elementary science curricula need to develop students’ understanding about the key concepts of energy and climate change. For teachers, developing quality learning experiences involves establishing what their students’ prior understanding about energy and climate change are. A survey was developed to explore what elementary students know and understand about renewable and non-renewable sources of energy and their relationship to climate change issues. The findings from this survey are reported in this paper.