This quick four-question survey places respondents in one of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication's Six Americas categories.
Students will learn that the Six Americas framework contains six tiers based on a person's level of concern over climate change.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The survey is easy to answer.
The resource includes instructions on how to compute a group score for the class.
The About section provides information on the survey and the scoring method.
Additional Prerequisites
This four-question survey places respondents into one of YPCCC's Six Americas categories. The categories are alarmed, concerned, cautious, disengaged, doubtful, and dismissive.
Differentiation
This survey can be used at the beginning of a climate science unit to show students how their level of concern compares to other Americans'.
Statistics classes could discuss how YPCCC determined the kinds of questions to include in the survey to understand and group people into six categories.
Other resources on this topic include this lesson on interpreting data from YPCCC's Six America's Super Short Survey, this interactive graph on Americans' climate beliefs over time, and this map that shows how people answered climate opinion questions in different parts of the United States.
Scientist Notes
The SASSY tool is expedient and can be used to collect data on risk perception of climate policies and actions taken from a targeted audience. The tool is comprehensive, simple, and easy to use to collect and score this type of data. This resource is recommended.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-5 Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 1: Developing Questions and Planning Inquiries
D1.1.6-8 Explain how a question represents key ideas in the field.
D1.1.9-12 Explain how a question reflects an enduring issue in the field.
Dimension 4: Communicating and Critiquing Conclusions
D4.2.6-8 Construct explanations using reasoning, correct sequence, examples, and details with relevant information and data, while acknowledging the strengths and weaknesses of the explanations.
