Climate Change in Teaching Chemistry: Focusing on the Use of Charts

Abstract

This paper aims to present research focused on fostering digital skills and data literacy in grammar schools through the teaching of the topic “Climate Change” during chemistry lessons. In the first phase, a set of four methodologies was developed – Earth’s Climate System, Monitoring air quality, Acid rains and their impact on the environment, Greenhouse effect and global warming. Each methodology included a teacher’s guide and a student worksheet. The methodologies focused on developing data literacy; to process the data, students worked with charts and data from well-known climate atlases, such as Copernicus Interactive Climate Atlas Climate (https://atlas.climate.copernicus.eu/), Atlas of Canada (https://climateatlas.ca/) as well as with the data from the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMI, https://www.shmu.sk), which provides up-to-date meteorological, hydrological, and climatological information in Slovakia. These methodologies were designed to help students develop their ability to seek and analyse data on air quality at both national and regional levels, identify greenhouse gases with a high global warming potential, understand their role in atmospheric processes, explore causality, and propose potential solutions to global problems based on the knowledge acquired. A pilot testing of these methodologies involved 50 3rd-year grammar school students. To assess the effectiveness of teaching using these methodologies, students completed exit cards. The evaluation of students’ responses indicated that they gained knowledge about the causes of air pollution, substances that pollute the environment (including their threshold concentration values), appreciated working with climate atlases and SHMI, and learned how to seek and analyse data based on various criteria. Students showed interest in learning about combating climate change and improving air quality.