Nature of Science Conceptions, Attitudes towards Evolution and Global Climate Change, and Course Achievement in an Introductory Biology Course

Many researchers have studied student attitudes toward and knowledge of evolutionary science, attitudes towards global climate change (GCC), conceptions about the nature of science (NOS), and course success. However, at the time of this writing, no studies explicitly link these topics. It is overwhelmingly acknowledged by the scientific community that evolution and global climate change (GCC) are undeniably supported by physical evidence. And yet, both topics remain very politically contentious in the United States. Efforts to mitigate the disconnects between the scientific community and the general public on these issues are imperative to science education. Such undertakings need to examine students ’ conceptions of the nature of science (NOS), how evidence is treated, how theories are constructed, and how scientific consensus is reached, as these may be key factors in acceptance of evolution and GCC. If students have a more thorough understanding of the weight behind scientific consensus and better tools to discern scientific versus non-scientific arguments, they may become more likely to accept strongly supported scientific ideas. Our study explored this hypothesis guided by the following questions: Do changes in NOS conceptions correlate with changes in attitudes towards evolution or GCC? If there are correlations, are they similar fo