Building Support for Electric Vehicles

• This article shows the effect of positive radio stories on people's perceptions of electric vehicles in Norway and the United States.
• It shows how media messaging changes popular opinions about electric vehicles.

Positives 

• The article describes an easy-to-follow experiment and includes data to support the findings.
• This can be a significant component of a media literacy, advertising, or literacy lesson.

Additional Prerequisites

• The article links to the two stories mentioned in the experiment.
• Students should understand what standardized mean difference is to properly analyze the data.

Differentiation

• Teachers can preview essential vocabulary terms, such as EV and emissions, to help students' comprehension.
• ELL students can be given the article beforehand to read.
• After reading the article, students can create a podcast story about an aspect of sustainability, such as eating less meat, EVs, solar power, buying recycled items, or composting. Then students can run an experiment to see if their podcast story influenced people's attitudes or beliefs.
• Other resources related to these topics include this video analyzing the impact of various types of cars on the climate and this video about the history of electric cars.