This appendix includes excerpts from a paper that originated from a panel discussion presented at the Ninth National STS Meeting and Technological Literacy Conference in January of 1994 in Arlington, VA by participants and staff members from the Leadership Institute in STS Education. The panel discussion was Session 8.4 at the 9th TLC (McLaren, Yorks, Yukish, Ditty, Rubba, & Wiesenmayer, 1994a). The paper written from that presentation was published in the Proceedings of 9th Technological Literacy Conference (McLaren, Yorks, Yukish, Ditty, Rubba, & Wiesenmayer, 1994a). The body of the paper included remarks made by the three Institute participants-Dottie Yukish, Marty McLaren, and Kathy Yorks-in which they describe actions taken by their students during and subsequest to the Actions Phase of one of the six units on global warming that preceded this unit (see the Introduction to this unit for background information on those units) -- hence, the references to global warming. Those sections from the paper, a portion of the introductory section, and the closing or summary section of the paper are included here. The actions taken by these teachers' students are exemplary, and are provided here for that reason.
From a social responsibility perspective (Waks & Prakash, 1985), citizens in a global society have an obligation to help resolve the myriad of STS issues that humankind has created and now threaten the world. These include STS issues such as, acid rain, global warming, ozone depletion, overpopulation, species extinction, water quality and quantity, and waste management. Consistent with the social responsibility perspective, the Institute was founded on the premise that the goal of integrating STS into school science is to help learners/citizens develop the knowledge, skills and willingness to take responsible actions on STS issues based upon informed decisions (Rubba & Wiesenmayer, 1985). Hence, the STS issue investigation and action instructional model was endorsed.
STS Issue investigation and action instruction originates from work in environmental education on teaching for responsible citizenship action. The environmental education research on responsible citizenship action, which is summarized elsewhere (Rubba & Wiesenmayer, 1988, 1993), and more recent work in STS itself (e.g., Ramsey & Hungerford, 1989; Simpson, 1990; Wiesenmayer & Rubba, 1990) shows that learners/citizens take action on societal issues and continue to take action when the instruction helps them develop: 1) an awareness of societal issues, b) knowledge about actions that might be taken to resolve the issues, c) the ability to carry out or take informed actions on the issues, and d) certain personality and affective characteristics that dispose one to act (e.g., a somewhat questioning attitude toward technology, an internal locus of control, efficacy perception). STS issue investigation and action instruction comprises four-phase units (i.e., STS issue foundations phase, STS issue awareness phase, STS issues investigation skill development phase, and STS issue action phase) that incorporate these four factors research has shown are requisite to citizen action on societal issues (Rubba & Wiesenmayer, 1985).
The focus in this paper is on the issue actions phase of the STS issue investigation and action units developed by the Institute participants. In the action phase, learners developed an understanding of various types of actions that might be taken in support of the answer they formulated to the focusing questions. A tentative action plan is composed and the pros and cons associated with each action examined from a number of perspectives. Lastly, learners decide which action(s) they are willing to take as individuals or as members of a group, implement the actions, evaluate the results and report on their efforts. All six of the units developed by the participants in the Institute have strong action components. Three of the teachers/participants-one an elementary teacher, one a middle school teacher, and one a high school teacher-have implemented those action components in an exemplary manner. The teachers' descriptions of how they implemented the action components of the STS units they helped develop are presented below.
Implementation of the Action Component from
How Does Our Use of Landscape Impact Global Warming?
in Fifth Grade Science-Dorothy J. Yukish
My students and I are currently in the actions phase of our STS unit on global warming. Both last school year and this one as we approached the action phase I knew that regardless of what actions my students chose to take, I wanted there to be a community education element to their actions. I knew that by the time they were done with the investigations phase of our unit, my students would be more knowledgeable about the issues surrounding global warming, the greenhouse effect, and the thinning of the ozone layer, than the average adult in our rural community. I also wanted my students to be able to go home and discuss what they were learning with their parents, family members and friends. A community education component to the action phase was important. Last year my students made presentations to parent groups, civic organizations, and church groups. We are at about that place in our unit this year. My students soon will begin preparing for this year's presentations.
The presentation involves a script my students prepare. We also use a story board that my students and I constructed last year, to show in concrete visual form what greenhouse enhancement is and what kinds of activities enhance the greenhouse effect. At the beginning of the presentation, the story board shows a completely natural environment with nothing but trees, grass and animals. As the students talked about settlement by man, industrialization and production of waste, and population growth, trees are physically removed from the storyboard and the trappings of our society are added, changing the picture on the storyboard. At the end of the presentation we give everyone in attendance a brochure which the children designed called, "We Are the Caretakers." The brochure lists a number of suggested actions that can be taken at home by individuals to help our environment. Also at the end of the brochure we have included this statement: "We have a rule in our sixth grade classroom. If you helped make a mess then you help clean it up. We think that rule also should apply to our planet."
Last year we also participated in a debate as part of the action phase of our STS unit. The debate question was, "Should there be laws regulating land use as a means of impacting global warming?" We had five different points of view represented in that debate. In the mountains of western Pennsylvania where my school is located we have a large ski resort industry. That was one point of view represented in the debate. Also, the positions of our lumber industry, the Department of Environmental Resources, West Penn Power Company, and a local citizens environmental group were represented. My class was divided into five committees, and representatives from each of these five agencies came into the classroom and worked with the students, helping them prepare their debate argument from that point of view. The students in each committee then selected a student speaker who represented their committee in the debate, presenting the argument and doing the rebuttal. The debate was presented in front of the upper elementary grades in our school and a panel of twelve judges comprised of the five agency representatives, school district administrators, community leaders, and students. That was a very successful activity. The people who came in and worked with my students were great. The students enjoyed the exposure to other people and it helped them see that when you are dealing with an issue such as global warming there are so many different points of view to consider.
This year our actions are more varied then they were last year. We are going to do the presentations and the brochure again. But my students decided that this would not reach enough people. They came up with the idea of videotaping the presentation and adding at the end of the presentation some of their own, personal comments and concerns about the global warming issue. We will make several copies of the videotape and have it available through our school library so other students can check it out, take it home, and share it with their families.
Prior to the holidays we got involved in a really interesting action. We had a lot of discussion about our use of electricity and decided many people think we need a lot of electrical appliances and gadgets, which in actuality we really do not need. The students worked in committees to make lists of household gadgets that unless we are physically handicapped we really could live without; we could do the activity by hand. They listed, for example, table top potato bakers, salad shooters, electric pencil sharpeners and electric can openers. Making the lists made them very conscious of these things as they were doing their holiday shopping, and they did their best to persuade their parents to avoid gadgets as gifts. Students also became very conscious of the gadgets that were being presented in the deluge of television advertisements right before Christmas. One day one of my students came in and he said, "Ms. Yukish, did you see that ad on TV last night for that potato chip maker?" He said, "Now who needs a potato chip maker? At my house we're lucky if my mom has time to make dinner let alone make her own potato chips." Some students, in fact, became quite intrigued with the idea of going back and living like the pioneers lived. They thought it would be neat to try that for a while.
We also got involved in making posters that suggest actions everyone should take to help resolve global warming. These will be put in community businesses and around the school. This is a sampling of the slogans on the posters: "Don't cut down the rain forest." "Replant a tree when you cut one down." (This especially applies to our local lumber industry in which a lot of our parents are employed.) "Carpooling-If you're going the same place, why not go together?" And finally, "Cows produce four pounds of methane a day, so don't eat a lot of beef. Methane makes the greenhouse effect worse."
The children also got involved in a letter writing campaign in which they wrote to local and state lawmakers and federal government officials. I would like to close by sharing two of these letters with you.
Dear Vice President Gore,
Hello. I'm a fifth grader at Springfield Elementary School. My science class is learning about the greenhouse effect and the ozone layer. We humans do lots of things that are bad for the environment and if we don't stop doing these things the environment isn't going to be a healthy place to live. When I grow up I want to live a healthy life. Maybe if we humans stop polluting, cutting down trees, and putting chlorofluorocarbons into the atmosphere, the earth might be a better place to live in years to come. I wish everybody cared about the environment as much as I do. I know you're interested in saving the earth. That's why I chose to write to you. I know you will read this and not just throw it away. I know you will do something about this problem.
Dear President Clinton,
Hi. My name is C____ S_____. I'm a fifth grader at Springfield Elementary School in a small town in the state of Pennsylvania. It is a place where people help pick up litter and recycle. Some people buy products that have less packaging and wrapping. We buy what we need, not unnecessary gadgets like the salad shooter.
I really care about my environment. So do kids in my class. We're going to plant a tree at the school in the summer. You have a daughter. Do you want her to live in a healthy or a bad environment? If you or all of us do not do something about this, we're going to die. Please help by making sure more money is given to environmental research and development.
Thank you.
Implementation of the Action Component from Global Warming:
Are Rising Carbon Dioxide Levels Harmful or Beneficial to the Earth?
in Eighth Grade Science-Martha G. McLaren
I teach eighth grade science. Often it is difficult to get eighth grade students' attention, but our STS unit on global warming was something with which they automatically identified. We approached the unit from the perspective that there is a body of scientific information on enhanced global warming. Some scientists interpret this information to indicate that global warming is a problem needing immediate attention. Other scientists do not view it as something that requires immediate action. Let's look at it; let's analyze the information and data; and let's decide where we would come down on the issue. We actually ended the unit with a pro and con debate where the students were assigned the opposite position they hold, so they get to understand global warming from different aspects.
When we got to the action part of the unit, overwhelmingly my students came down on the side of the issue that it requires action on their part, now. There were a few students that felt it was not a significant concern. To those students I said, "That's fine. Explain to me why you believe that." So the student who did not see global warming as a concern had to justify their views. Also, I ask them to take an action for any environmental problem that they felt strongly about. They were very comfortable doing that. Many of the students chose to plant trees and their documentation to me was a series of pictures. Some of them also decided to kept a journal about the trees they planted. One girl named her tree and got really attached to it. Interestingly, my students began to see trees as something more; they began to see trees as they fit into the rest of the environment.
A lot of kids started car pooling. We are a rural community and there are no activity buses after school. The kids on athletic teams and in other after school activities made a real effort to carpool-I know this from their journals. A lot of kids started recycling and a very intense competition started to the point of weighing the recyclable materials to see who had collected the largest amount.
I finished teaching my unit near the end of October. Most student actions are on-going projects. When we talked about consumerism some of the students decided that they were really interested in the financial angle of global warming. We came across the book, Students Shopping for a Better World (Dellabough, Hollister, Marlin, Swaab, Rose & Will, 1992). The kids really got excited about this and started looking up the environmental record of companies like Nike and Wendy's. I had a number of students go through the book making sure that the items on their Christmas wish lists came from companies that had good environmental records.
One young man got really interested in consumerism. His family was buying a new automobile. He insisted that he be involved in the family decision and the analysis of what car to buy based on it's gas efficiency. Also, the whole area of safety came up. I teach physical science and we were studying Newton's laws of motion. STS became a wonderful vehicle-no pun intended-to get into lots of safety issues too. So one area of science really led into another through STS.
One brave soul approached the head of the school cafeteria to inquire about the Styrofoam containers that were being used. Another group asked that same question four years ago and they were told that the school was using up the supply that had been purchased. Well, four years later it appears that we are still using up the supply. This young man was thrilled that he was confronting the cafeteria staff about this. The head of the cafeteria armed herself with reams of information about the environmental friendliness of the containers. The young man is very methodically going through calling and checking data and sources. One source gave him a big spiel about recycling Styrofoam, but he realized that there is no place in central Pennsylvania that has the facility to recycle Styrofoam. So he caught on to the propaganda quickly.
We hold a fund raiser every year to get money for a field trip, because like most schools our budgets have been cut drastically. In previous years we have made hoagies. This year the students decided they wanted to sell T-shirts. We found a company called Humani-Tees that sells very high quality T-shirts with environmentally friendly logos and slogans. Parents were thrilled that this was our fund raiser and that we would have kids running around school with positive slogans on their shirts. This company, in addition to being very nice to work with, gives 20% of their profit into agencies that take environmental actions. The students were pleased that they could take persuasive and consumer actions at the same time they were raising funds for a field trip.
My students also took persuasive actions through projects they had to complete in visual communications class. This was arranged with the visual communication teacher. For one project the students must design a computer graphic. My students were asked to design a computer graphic that illustrated a fact that they had learned in the global warming unit. We are in the process of getting these together to make an informational book about global warming that can be shared with the students at the elementary school, which is on the same campus as our middle school. For another project the students make buttons in visual communication class. Last year each student made a button with an environmentally friendly slogan. The buttons were given to me. I wore one every day and on Earth Day we gave one to every teacher in the building. This year the students are cranking out buttons in mass quantities. We plan not only to give one to every staff and faculty member in our building on Earth Day, but to sell them to other students in the cafeteria and donate the money to an environmental organization that the kids decide they would like to support.
Also associated with visual communications class, one of my students developed a computer cartoon about global warming complete with computer animation. Three young ladies have written a play. They have had try outs and are busily making props. The play is based on recycling and peer pressure. It will be presented at the elementary school. Another group of students is working on 30 second public service announcements about global warming that are informative and persuasive. The visual communications teachers are trying to arrange for these to be shown on our local public access cable station.
Yet another group of students was interested in using the computer program Pagemaker to take action. They are making tri-fold brochures. I am checking their factual material for content. The English teacher that works with me is checking their grammar and spelling. The visual communications teacher is working on layout formats and how to use the program. We have a tentative agreement with the company that produces our yearbook to print hundreds of the brochures so on Earth Day everybody that has a mailbox in the district will get a brochure about global warming. We also plan to put piles of the brochures out in different places in the community.
We have had some letter writing. A group of students wrote a letter to the Editorial section of our local newspaper. One student wrote to the President. Talk about excitement, wait till your kids get a response from the President. They were so excited that it came back on official White House stationery. As a result the kids have gotten really interested in whether the politicians that they have written to will actually take the time to respond.
My students constantly are bringing me articles that they have read and saying, "What do you think about this? Do you really believe everything in here is true?" So they are continuing to question what they read. The study of global warming has generated a great deal of interest in other environmental topics. They are fascinated by ozone. One student brought me Echo Writers-pencils that are made not from wood but from recycled paper. We spent a whole period discussing all sides of the question, "What is the environmentally correct writing utensil?"-"Are we saving the trees? What about the water that it took to recycle the paper? Is there another angle that we need to look at and maybe we should go with plastic refillable pencils?" The kids are now to the point that they question everything. I think it is absolutely wonderful. One young man's father owns the local restaurant. He took the CFCs free tag off of a carton of Styrofoam cups and asked me, "Can we call this 800 number? Can we talk to these people and see if that is true?"
We have a very large deer population, over 1000 deer on the Gettysburg Battlefield which should sustain only about 150 deer. There is a continuing debate within the community on what to do. Some of my students have gotten involved in this and other local issues, such as the proposed solid waste composing facility, by going to meetings and finding out what is going on through the newspaper. Of course, they want to discuss most of these happenings in class.
There have been a number of unplanned effects on other parts of the curriculum from the global warming unit. One of the reading teachers has worked with this little book called, Four Against the Odds (Krensky, 1992). It's a wonderful biography of four different people that are involved including Chico Mendez, which was significant for us because we are an apple growing section of Adams County. We have a number of migrant students and this was a real role model for them. The English teacher worked up a whole unit that went along with and supported the environmental interests that my kids were developing.
Our students do debates in English class. Last year and this year many of them selected environmental issues. The English teacher told me environmental issues were not selected before I taught the global warming unit.
I contacted the electric company for resources. They sent the Metropolitan Edison Electric Company (Met-Ed) van, which is an electrically-run van, to our school. The folks at the electric company were thrilled to get this van out where it could be seen. My students were fascinated with it. Our school superintendent happened to stop by the day the Met-Ed van was here. He had a job fair for the adults in the community coming up within a few days and was able to arrange for the Met-Ed van to be at the job fair along with a natural gas powered vehicle. I also tried to get General Motors to send the Impact. I called every General Motors dealer within about a hundred miles, but none of them could help me.
I have a nucleus of three students that I had last year that came to me the beginning of this year and said, "We want to start an environmental action club. Will you be our faculty advisor." The name they selected was "Cool It." They have started an aluminum can recycling center in the school and are constructing a chain from the pop-tops. They want to see how long it will take to get a million pop-tops. A million is probably not a realistic figure for one year but we will keep going and see how far they get. I was impressed that their interest in environmental issues was sustained enough that they came back a year later and wanted to continue it.
I have seen three tremendous changes resulting from teaching the global warming unit and the actions the students have taken. My students no longer see science as separate and as black and white. Science is interconnected with other areas and those interactions have shades of gray; there is no one right answer. They also see that the answers are constantly changing and they need to stay updated. The learning environment has expanded far beyond my classroom to the community and beyond. My students have gone out and made contacts, and are continuing to go out and reach out to other people. They are not afraid to pick up a phone and call an 800 number to ask an environmental question. I have never seen that happened before. STS has made a tremendous impact on the way my students look at the environment, the way my students look at science and technology interactions within society, and the way they look at learning and sources for learning.
Implementation of the Action Component from
The Impact of Global Warming on Plants and Animals
in High School Biology-Kathy A. Yorks
Biology students in our high school are homogeneously grouped, thus we have academic students and non-academic students together. The non-academic students take an STS course in 11th or 12th grade, while the academic students take chemistry and then perhaps physics or some other advanced science elective. My concern has been that our academic students are not getting STS education; that their studies in science are not issue-oriented; that they are not developing the skills to investigate issues (from all sides) and make informed decisions. So, my orientation is perhaps a little different than that of some of the other teachers in the Institute who teach middle school science.
I believe there is another difference in my orientation. It is very challenging to fit a five to six week unit into a high school biology course where the curriculum is already overflowing and the teacher has little freedom to make adjustments. What portions of the course can I sacrifice? Botany? Dissections? Those decisions were very difficult to make the first year, but easier the second. Looking back, I can say with all honesty that I truly believe that the information and the skills that my students obtained from our STS unit on global warming were much more valuable than, for example, knowing the anatomy of a crayfish or the scientific name of a white pine tree. Of course, we can debate that, but I believe that the time that we have spent on STS is time that was very well spent.
My unit is not continuous because of the way I fit it into my biology course. We cover the foundations and awareness sections at the very beginning of the school year, and write to various organizations for information at the end of the awareness section. While we wait for the mail to come back we study biology topics that will serve as a basis for the investigation phase-the cell, photosynthesis, and ecology. In February we return to the STS unit, to analyze our mail and investigate global warming using many resources. Then the students decide what actions they are willing to take. The action segment continues as we return to our study of more "traditional" biology topics.
I think there are two reasons why my students go to such lengths at taking action. One is that the actions phase follows the investigation of the STS issue. I do not stand in front of the students and tell them to do X, Y and Z. They are involved in investigating the issue. In order to investigate global warming, my students choose from different organizations and write to them for information. We write to environmental organizations; we write to governmental organizations; we write to conservative organizations, liberal organizations, all kinds of different organizations, and ask them to send us information about global warming. We try to get the most up-to-date information. The students love getting mail-even cool tenth graders really like getting mail from people. We have gotten information from some real wild organizations. There is one organization called Earth First that is pretty left-wing. But the kids love it, and I make sure that we have a representative sample of different opinions.
The other reason my students go to such lengths at taking action is, and it was not something that I would have predicted, that as we proceed through the unit, even though it takes a fair amount of time, a momentum builds and becomes very powerful. The students come to some consensus. They believe global warming is a problem. The students tend to vary as far as how big a problem they believe global warming is, but they really get caught up in a "What can I do about this?" perspective. I was surprised at the level of concern, at the commitment, and at what the students were willing to do. They were willing to do things that I . . . well, I really had to lift my energy level to keep up with them. It takes a lot of energy to take action, but I think it is well worth it.
Now were the actions my students took a little bit different than those taken by students of the other teachers in the Institute? We are dealing with high school students. High school students are very grade conscious and we have to have ways to keep them accountable. My students were required a) to choose an individual action that they could take, b) to choose a group action that they were willing to take in their cooperative groups, and c) to choose a family action. A plan outlining all three actions had to be submitted to me. I reviewed it, made sure there was some way of verifying the actions, approved it or made suggestions. I stressed to the students that they should choose actions with which they felt comfortable. It might have been a small action, but they had to choose an action, even if it was something as simple as making sure to turn off the TV before going to bed at night. Parents had to provide the verification the actions were taken. That was one of my links with the parents.
Did they all do what they said they were going to do? I don't know. But I did get a lot of positive feedback. There was a lot of family involvement, or at least, the parents were verifying that their son/daughter was taking some appropriate actions. One family substituted all of the light bulbs in their homes with more energy efficient light bulbs. I was truly amazed at the number of families that made a commitment to take action and that gave me positive feedback. Several families started compost piles.
The group actions were great. A group could be as small as two or as large as six. I allowed them to get together with their friends and decide what group actions they wanted to take. The group actions included things as simple as planting trees, helping with paper recycling in our building. We had a group of girls decide they wanted to go to the local elementary school and make a presentation about global warming. When they came back I asked, "How did it go?" They said, "They knew more than we did." They were just amazed that fourth grade students knew as much as they did about global warming.
The cafeteria sells Sunny Delight in small plastic bottles. We had a group of students decide that the cafeteria should start recycling the plastic bottles. That may not seem like a big deal, but it is very hard to find somebody to take your plastic for recycling in central Pennsylvania. So it involved quite a bit of work to carry out that action. Another groups of kids made posters on global warming that they hung on walls and flyers that we distributed to homerooms.
Probably the biggest effort was they decided to have a bake sale to raise money for a rain forest organization. When the students suggested this, I started thinking, "I don't want to be sitting down in front of J. C. Penny's on a Saturday morning trying to sell cupcakes that nobody wants to buy. They're going to raise $30. This is going to be a lot of wasted effort." But I kept my opinions to myself-thank goodness-because the students said, "Well, maybe there's a way we can do it in school." I said, "There's no way our principal is going to allow us to sell junk food in the cafeteria or brownies in the hallway." Finally we thought of the school-wide art show that would be held in the gymnasium. We got permission from the art teacher to set up a couple of tables. The students raised $170 selling cookies and cupcakes. They made up little slips of paper that had information on it about global warming and gave those out with the baked goods. A lot of the faculty donated things. It was a wonderful effort and the kids were so proud of themselves. It was very impressive.
Last year's students continue to give me positive feedback. The kids continue to drop in and talk to me about things that they see. I have not gotten to the investigation and action portion with this year's biology classes, but I am very anxious because in the fall a new paper recycling plant went on line at Hammermill Paper Company, which is located in Lock Haven. The plant is one of only five currently on-line recycling facilities that recycle newspapers and magazines into copy quality paper. I foresee this year's students collecting newspapers or magazines within our building or their families or the community as group actions. We should be able to get some of the folks from Hammermill to come to school to talk to the kids about the plant. That will be great addition to the unit for us this year.
High school kids can get passionate about topics they study. I think that we are giving them in our global warming unit skills that they will continue to practice in life. We had students write letters to companies and letters to the editor. Through some of the resources we used, the students identified some companies they identified as environmentally irresponsible. One student wrote a letter to Mitsubishi that said, in essence, "I'm 16 years old. Some day I'm going to be buying a car. I'm never going to buy a car from you because I understand that your company supports organizations that cut down the rain forest." He firmly believed that the people at Mitsubishi were going to take his letter seriously and there was no way he was ever going to buy any of their products. STS is one of the topics that can get high school students excited.
It is the action phase that differentiates STS issue investigation and action instruction from awareness-type STS instruction, that aims merely to make learners aware of major STS issues facing humankind. The research on citizenship action in environmental education clearly shows that awareness of issues and knowledge about what actions might be taken is not sufficient to move individuals to action. Learners also need to come to understand that they have the capabilities to take actions and develop the belief that they can have an effect. It can be argued that the action phase is the capstone component in the STS issue investigation and action instruction model. It is the action phase of the STS issue investigation and action model that helps learners develop the skills to take action and belief that they can have an impact.
Additionally, the action phase is the climax of STS issue investigation and action instruction. Throughout the course of the initial three phases of a STS issue investigation and action unit, learners study typical interactions among science, technology and society that result in STS issues; identify a locally relevant STS issue that has global consequences; and investigate the science, technology and society aspects of the issue. In the action phase these activities culminate as learners make decisions about resolution of the issue under study; plan group and individual actions that might be taken toward the resolution of the STS issue, weigh the possible consequences of each action; move forth to take actions; and evaluate the effect of those actions.
This paper has included an overview of a science teacher enhancement Institute in which teachers from rural central Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia are involved in the development of STS issue investigation and action units on global warming, and descriptions by three Institute participants of how they implemented the action phases of the particular STS unit each helped to develop. These were presented as a panel discussion at the Ninth National STS Meeting and Technological Literacy Conference. In responding to questions from the audience during the panel discussion, each of the three teachers indicated that their students also saw taking action as a rational consequence and culmination to their study of global warming:
For my students taking action was a logical consequence of the STS unit. Even if it wasn't a goal of the unit, I believe they would have come up with the idea on their own because a lot of what they read in the investigation phase focused on what you could do and many of those suggested actions are things they've already heard. They've heard people say, plant a tree. They've heard people say you should recycle. The unit helped them make a connection with that prior knowledge about action and the possible consequences of those actions. As I said, I think they would have been inspired on their own to take actions even if it had not been part of the unit. (MGM)
My fifth graders really jumped the gun on me in terms of actions even though they were not aware of all four phases of an STS unit. We were only about halfway through the investigations phase when they started saying, "I think we ought to do this. I think we ought to do that." They didn't know that taking action was a part of the unit. It came about naturally. (DJY)
I think the action phase added a rationale for the students to study Global warming. Early in the STS unit my students could have listed actions that people have proposed as "good for the environment." They might even have listed the same actions they listed at the end of the unit. But at the end of the unit they had a rationale and an understanding of why the actions were good. Also, they were able to connect that action with their understanding of the global warming issue. This made taking action a natural thing for them to do. (KAY)
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Rubba, P., & Wiesenmayer, R. (1988). Goals and competencies for precollege STS education: Recommendations based upon recent literature in environmental education. The Journal of Environmental Education, 19(4), 38-44.
Rubba, P., & Wiesenmayer, R. (1991). Teacher development and research in STS education for rural middle/junior high school science teachers from central Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia. August 1991 to August 1994, Teacher Enhancement Program, National Science Foundation, Grant TEP-9150232.
Rubba, P., & Wiesenmayer, R. (1993). Increased action by students. In R. Yager (Eds.). The science, technology, society movement: What research says to the science teacher, Volume 7 (pp. 169-175). Washington, DC: National Science Teachers Association.
Simpson, P. (1990, April). The effects of an extended STS case study on citizenship behavior and associated variables in fifth and sixth grade students. A paper presented at the 1990 Meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Atlanta, GA.
Waks, L., & Prakash, M. (1985). STS education and its three step-sisters. Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society, 5(2), 105-116.
Wiesenmayer, R., & Rubba, P. (1990, April). The effects of STS issue investigation and action instruction and traditional life science instruction on seventh grade students' citizenship behavior. A paper presented at the 1990 Meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Atlanta, GA.
Wiesenmayer, R., Turpin, C., & Arguello, M. (1988). Infusing science-technology-society (STS) studies into urban school science curriculum: a model & examples. In L. Waks (Eds.). Technological literacy for the "new majority": Enhancing secondary science education through STS for urban/minority youth. (Report of U.S. Department of Education Grant 60018610608)
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