As climate change becomes an increasingly important topic for science educators, it is critical to learn how teachers may be able to increase students' knowledge about it. We conducted two consecutive quasi‐experimental studies that investigated the role of interest in predicting middle school students' knowledge gains from a unit about how scientists use mathematical models to predict climate change's impacts on forests. The studies measured the intervention's effects on students' knowledge about climate change and examined how their interest in the topic and related factors were associated with their knowledge before and after the intervention. Participants in the two studies included 467 treatment and 177 comparison group students (Study 1) and 363 treatment and 219 comparison group students (Study 2). Multilevel modeling analyses revealed increases in students' knowledge about climate change after participating in the unit. Path modeling analyses showed that students' interest in climate change was indirectly related to their knowledge about climate change, mediated by students' existing desire to learn more, their interest in the unit, their belief that climate change was important (Studies 1 and 2), as well as their behavioral self‐efficacy (Study 2). Students' interest in science was positively associated with their knowledge about climate change (Study 1) but their perception of threats posed by climate change was not (Study 2). Findings suggest that science educators can improve students' knowledge about climate change by connecting the topic to students' lives and ensuring they feel empowered to act on climate change.

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兴趣在气候变化指导中的作用

随着气候变化成为科学教育工作者日益重要的话题，至关重要的是要了解教师如何能够增加学生对此的知识。我们连续进行了两次准实验研究，研究了兴趣在预测中学生从一个科学家如何使用数学模型预测气候变化对森林的影响的单元中获得的知识中的作用。这些研究测量了干预措施对学生对气候变化知识的影响，并研究了干预前后学生对该主题和相关因素的兴趣如何与他们的知识相关联。两项研究的参与者包括467名治疗和177名对照组学生（研究1）和363名治疗和219名对照组学生（研究2）。多层次建模分析显示，参加该单元后，学生对气候变化的了解有所增加。路径建模分析表明，学生对气候变化的兴趣与他们对气候变化的知识间接相关，这是由学生对更多知识的现有愿望，对本单元的兴趣以及对气候变化至关重要的信念所介导的（研究1和2）以及他们的行为自我效能（研究2）。学生对科学的兴趣与他们对气候变化的了解呈正相关（研究1），但他们对气候变化带来的威胁的感知却没有（研究2）。研究结果表明，科学教育工作者可以通过将话题与学生的气候变化联系起来，从而提高他们对气候变化的认识。