Diagnostic Testing of Science Concepts K ESA/SER Joint Meeting Brook J. Wilke, Christopher D. Wilson & Charles W. (Andy) Anderson

Environmental Science Literacy The capacity to understand and participate in evidence-based discussions of socio- ecological systems. What scientific knowledge and practices should all students learn that will give them the capacity to be environmentally responsible citizens?

Environmental Science Literacy Only a few students can explain basic processes in environmental systems, leaving them poorly prepared to see connections among the actions we take, the environmental system services we depend on, and our collective future.

LTER Socio-Ecological Research Collins et al ISSE.

Environmental Literacy “Loop” Diagram

Current Science Curriculum

Ranking Systems Put the following items in the boxes below, going from the smallest to the largest. Population, Gene, Species, DNA, Ecosystem, Dog, Chromosome

Environmental Literacy “Loop” Diagram Curriculum with Focus on Environmental Literacy Students will be Consumers, Voters, Workers, Volunteers, Advocates & Learners

Environmental Literacy Topics Biodiversity: foods and land for living, settlement and management for production, processes that create, sustain, and reduce biodiversity Carbon: foods and fuels, global climate change, processes that produce, transform, and oxidize organic carbon Water: fresh water, water management, processes that move and distribute water, processes that alter water composition (data not included in presentation) Citizenship: Practices of making decisions about human actions that use environmental system services or have environmental impact.

Learning Progressions Many standards and curricula contain too many disconnected topics that are given equal priority. Too little attention is given to how students’ understanding of a topic can be supported and enhanced from grade to grade. As a result, topics receive repeated, shallow coverage with little consistency, which provides fragile foundation for further knowledge or growth. Taking Science to School (National Academy of Sciences, 2007) –Learning progressions describe the complicated ways in which students reason about content over broad periods of time. –Incorporating how students reason about topics over time will improve the quality of ecological education, helping us establish curricula and standards that lead to ecological literacy

Levels of Achievement We use seven levels of achievement to map out students’ progress: Levels 1-3: Stories about events. Students make sense of the world by telling stories about events that they see and hear, with little awareness of systems or hidden mechanisms Level 4: School science narratives. Students include atoms, molecules, and large-scale systems in their stories, but they cannot use scientific models and principles to “complete the socio- ecological loop” Levels 5-7: Model-based reasoning about socio-ecological systems. Students use scientific models and principles to complete the loop, connecting human social and economic systems and issues with environmental systems and issues.

Biological Diversity and Change over Time in Environmental Systems Processes within Populations Processes within Communities Processes that create biodiversity Mutation, sexual recombination Colonization by new species Processes that sustain biodiversity Life cycles, reproduction. Relationships between populations. Processes that reduce biodiversity Natural selection, human selection Natural succession Human management.

Genetic Variation Very few students ever mentioned more than one possible source of phenotypic variation. Genetic variation was only common as an answer when environmental variation could be ruled out.

Genetic Variation Farmers often use pesticides to help prevent insects from eating their crops. Over time, the insects slowly become resistant to these pesticides, and so the farmers have to use different pesticides to protect their crops. Tell a story about how the insects become resistant to the pesticides. LevelChange over Time Level 5 Model-based accounts across scales When the crops are sprayed some bugs are killed but some may live and when the living mate they will give their kids genes to help them survive through the pesticides so the bugs adapt to the pesticides and because the bugs reproduce fast and don’t live long it doesn't take long for them to adapt to the pesticides. Level 4 School science narratives of systems As the bugs live in and around these pesticides, their immunity to it becomes stronger, and this immunity becomes stronger as they pass them down to their young in genes. Level 2 Narrative descriptions of systems at the macroscopic scale Their bodies try to fight off the pesticides. Once they figure out how to fight them it's easy for them to fight so the pesticides no longer work.

Pesticide Resistance Level of Achievement % of Student Answers

Carbon Events We Have Asked About Plant growth Animal growth and weight loss People exercising Food chains and webs Energy pyramids What happens to food after you eat it. Decay of plants, animals, people Burning matches and candles Automobiles using gasoline Global Warming

Carbon Level 5 Reasoning about the Carbon Cycle Combustion, cellular respiration Photosynthesis Matter: CO 2 & H 2 OMatter: Organic matter & O 2 Biosynthesis, digestion, food webs, fossil fuel formation Movement of CO 2, H 2 O, and minerals Energy: Sunlight Energy: Chemical potential energy Energy: Work & heat

Carbon Percentage of high school students giving Level 5 responses: Approximately 2-5%

Carbon What Makes Level 5 Reasoning Hard? Connecting scales –Different macroscopic events are explained by common atomic-molecular processes –Different macroscopic events are connected in large- scale systems Basic chemistry –Atoms of gases can be rearranged into solid and liquid molecules –Chemical identities of substances and classes of substances Understanding the power of models –One model can generate stories of many different events

Carbon Level 3 Reasoning about the Carbon Cycle Animals Plants Carbon dioxide Oxygen Decay Plants NutrientsFood chains Sunlight The oxygen-carbon dioxide cycle Energy sources for plants: sunlight, nutrients, water Energy sources for animals: food, water Decomposers don’t need energy

Carbon Some Characteristics of Level 3 Reasoning Focus on macroscopic events and systems Separate stories about different events Stories of gases are separate from stories of solids and liquids Energy as conditions or materials needed to make something happen

Oxidation of Organic Carbon Engineered Systems What happens to a match when it burns? What happened to the gasoline when a car is empty? How could using gasoline affect global warming? What make materials energy-rich? Level of Achievement % of Student Answers

Citizenship Question: You go through the lunch line at school and see that they are serving hamburgers. Where did the hamburgers come from? The ground beef in the hamburger patties wasn’t always ground beef. It wasn’t even always beef. Fill in the table with your ideas about what it was and where it came from before it came to the school cafeteria. Trace the beef back as you can. What was it? Where did it come from? Ground beef in hamburger in the school cafeteria Before that…

Trends From Younger to Older Students Awareness of Systems and Processes: From Visible to Invisible (small- and large-scale systems, invisible mechanisms, gases) Precision in Measurement and Description: From Impressions to Data (trust and accuracy in measurement, scientific terms, categories, data representation) Nature of Accounts: From Stories and Procedures to Models Constrained by Principles (changing balance between stories and models, using principles to constrain and connect models, distinguishing models from observations and patterns)

Overall Conclusions Very few American high school students do better than Level 4 when they try to explain basic processes in environmental systems, such as watersheds, invasive species, plant growth, combustion, and decay. This leaves them poorly prepared to see connections among the actions we take, the environmental system services we depend on, and our collective future. Website:

Thank You Major Contributors Lindsey Mohan, Chris Wilson, Beth Covitt, Kristin Gunckel, Blakely Tsurusaki, Hui Jin, Jing Chen, Hasan Abdel-Kareem, Rebecca Dudek, Josephine Zesaguli, Hsin-Yuan Chen, Brook Wilke, Ed Smith, Jim Gallagher, and Edna Tan at Michigan State University Phil Piety at the University of Michigan Mark Wilson, Karen Draney, Jinnie Choi, and Yong-Sang Lee at the University of California, Berkeley. National Science Foundation for funding the Environmental Literacy Project, LTER and the GK-12 Program Website: