Perceptions of Climate Change: How Dalhousie students conceptualize climate change and the role of faculty in promoting awareness

Abstract

In an attempt to underline areas within Dalhousie University's schooling that are currently lacking climate change related education, students across multiple faculties were surveyed to identify knowledge gaps in faculty curriculums. The data collection was gathered over the course of two weeks, of which several hours were during peak times at the Student Union Building. 100 surveys were printed for this project but, due to lack of time, only 84 surveys were completed. Surveys were chosen as our main form of data collection due to the amount of diversity that was needed for this study. Out of the 84 surveys completed the results that we obtained showed that the faculties that hear the least amount of climate change related issues are Business and Management students. These results allow us to gauge which faculties need additional information in regards to climate change awareness in their class curriculum. General Sciences and Environmental Science had the highest percentage of students that have heard about climate change related issues around Dalhousie. With that being said, there is still a need for improvement in regards to how climate change education is implemented across campus. The faculties with the least amount of climate change integration, according to our data collection, was Business and Management. These faculties had little experience in regards to climate change education in class and around campus. Three out of the four groups found that they did not know where to locate information regarding climate change at Dalhousie. The only group that knew this information came from the Environmental Science and Sustainability students. This is not surprising due to their climate change oriented curriculum. The majority of students surveyed stated that they had never taken a sustainability course at Dalhousie. This shows that if students did not partake in a sustainability course, their chances of being taught about climate change was low. From the results, we also noted that the majority of students believe that it is their educator's role to promote climate change awareness.