If you help children connect with their environment and community, add your voice here: 2026 Census of Community-Based Environmental Learning

Six Americas Super Short Survey (SASSY!)

Data, Graphs, and Maps

Grades6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12Science, Social Studies

This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Open Resource

What it is

  • This quick four-question survey places respondents in one of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication's Six Americas categories.
  • Students will learn that the Six Americas framework contains six tiers based on a person's level of concern over climate change. 

Teaching tips

Positives

  • The survey is easy to answer.
  • The resource includes instructions on how to compute a group score for the class.
  • The About section provides information on the survey and the scoring method.

Additional Prerequisites

  • This four-question survey places respondents into one of YPCCC's Six Americas categories. The categories are alarmed, concerned, cautious, disengaged, doubtful, and dismissive.

Differentiation

  • This survey can be used at the beginning of a climate science unit to show students how their level of concern compares to other Americans'.
  • Statistics classes could discuss how YPCCC determined the kinds of questions to include in the survey to understand and group people into six categories. 
  • Other resources on this topic include this lesson on interpreting data from YPCCC's Six America's Super Short Survey, this interactive graph on Americans' climate beliefs over time, and this map that shows how people answered climate opinion questions in different parts of the United States.

From the scientist review

The SASSY tool is expedient and can be used to collect data on risk perception of climate policies and actions taken from a targeted audience. The tool is comprehensive, simple, and easy to use to collect and score this type of data. This resource is recommended.
How we review resources

Ready to use it?

Hosted on climatecommunication.yale.edu

Open Resource

Want this to fit your class?

Add your location for local examples, questions, and action ideas.

Related Teaching Resources