In this activity, students will collect survey data using questions from the Yale Climate Opinion Maps and compare the data results with the local data collected by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
Students will design a survey, make hypotheses, graph their data, evaluate the accuracy of their data, identify sources of error, and formulate a plan to educate the community about climate change.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The Student Page is an extremely well-designed fillable pdf that leads students through the activity in a step-by-step manner.
The questions require students to think critically about the process of surveying and analyzing data.
Additional Prerequisites
Though the Student Page is a fillable pdf, the two blank graphs are not fillable and must be completed on paper.
Students should be familiar with sources of error.
Differentiation
After the activity, students could design a plan to educate the community about an element of climate change. Students could make posters to put in public buildings, record a short audio piece to play on a public radio station, or make an infographic that can be shared digitally.
In small groups, students could share their hypotheses and results and discuss the similarities and differences.
The resource provides students with deep insights into the belief systems and behavioral patterns about climate change in the USA. The scope of the study, method, datasets used for the opinion maps, charts, and other materials are appropriate. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Mathematics
Statistical Reasoning: Statistics and Probability: Interpreting Categorical and Quantitative Data (9-12)
HSS.ID.B.6 Represent data on two quantitative variables on a scatter plot, and describe how the variables are related.
Statistical Reasoning: Statistics and Probability: Making Inferences and Justifying Conclusions (9-12)
HSS.IC.A.1 Understand statistics as a process for making inferences about population parameters based on a random sample from that population.
Science and Engineering
ETS1: Engineering Design
HS-ETS1-1 Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.
HS-ETS1-2 Design a solution to a complex real-world problem by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable problems that can be solved through engineering.
HS-ETS1-3 Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics, as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
Social Studies
Civics & Government
Civics & Government 1 (F2): Students understand the ideals, purposes, principles, structures, and processes of constitutional government in the United States and in the American political system, as well as examples of other forms of government and political systems in the world by explaining how and why democratic institutions and interpretations of democratic ideals and constitutional principles change over time.
