THE IDEAS OF SECONDARY-SCHOOL CHILDREN CONCERNING OZONE-LAYER DAMAGE

The understanding of pupils between the ages of 11 and 16 about the ozone layer - what it is, what will damage it and what will be the likely result of such damage - has been studied. Following the use of a preliminary open-form questionnaire, the ideas of a large cohort of children have been probed by closed-form questionnaire and by interviews with a subset of this group. The authors explain that most pupils seem aware that the ozone layer is a layer of gas around Earth, but less sure what that gas is. They also know that it protects Earth from ultra-violet rays from the sun, and that further depletion will allow more ultra-violet to Earth and cause more skin cancer. Most also know that one cause of depletion is the use of CFCs, but many confuse the depletion of the ozone layer with the greenhouse effect and other forms of atmospheric pollution. The authors provide evidence to suggest that such confusion of ideas is strongly held and that, even with this relatively new and abstract phenomenon, ideas are held in a consistent and similar framework by most pupils.