Impact of training about sea turtles on preservice science teachers' awareness and anxiety levels regarding global climate change

The purpose of this study is to raise awareness in preservice science teachers on global climate change, reduce their anxiety and increase their knowledge on sea turtles via applied training about global climate change. The study was carried out with 45 sophomore students receiving education at Pamukkale University Faculty of Education Department of Mathematics and Science Education Department of Science Education within the scope of the Biology-2 class during the fall term of the 2022-2023 academic year. Theoretical and applied training about global climate change was provided to the students on the basis of sea turtles two hours a week for eight weeks. In the study, the quantitative research method and single-group pretest-posttest design (weak quasi-experimental design) were used. Topics of the training were the impacts of global climate change on the natural and human environment, reasons causing global climate change, global climate change and endangered species, global climate change and energy consumption, sea turtles and their life cycle, impact of global climate change on the sex of sea turtles, impact of global climate change on sea turtles and their habitat, and organizations and treaties related to global climate change. The training was enriched with experiments, activity papers, presentations and videos. Data collection tools were applied to the students prior to and after the application. In the study, The Awareness of University Students on Global Climate Change Scale was used for measuring the awareness of the students and The Climate Change Anxiety Scale for measuring their anxiety levels. The Sea Turtles Descriptive Information Survey and The Sea Turtles Success Rubric, created by the researcher, were used for measuring their knowledge on sea turtles. As a result of the study, it was found that the students' awareness on global climate change had increased, whereas their anxiety levels had decreased. Their knowledge on sea turtles had increased at a statistically significant level.