Children's and adults' knowledge and models of reasoning about the ozone layer and its depletion

Abstract

As environmental concepts, the ozone layer and ozone hole are important to understand because they can profoundly influence our health. In this paper, we examined: (a) children's and adults' knowledge of the ozone layer and its depletion, and whether this knowledge increases with age' and (b) how the 'ozone layer' and 'ozone hole' might be structured as scientific concepts. We generated a standardized set of questions and used it to interview 24 kindergarten students, 48 Grade 3 students, 24 Grade 5 students, and 24 adults in university, in Canada. An analysis of participants' responses revealed that adults have more knowledge than children about the ozone layer and ozone hole, but both adults and children exhibit little knowledge about protecting themselves from the ozone hole. Moreover, only some participants exhibited 'mental models' in their conceptual understanding of the ozone layer and ozone hole. The implications of these results for health professionals, educators, and scientists are discussed.