The assessment of light pollution awareness levels of 8th grade secondary school students

In the present study, the purpose was to examine the awareness levels of 8th-grade students of secondary school participating in the study in terms of different variables and develop a light pollution awareness scale. The study group consisted of a total of 246 students (114 males; 132 females) studying at the schools in Aksaray city center in the fall semester of the 2019-2020 academic year. The descriptive survey model was used in the study. The "Light Pollution Awareness Scale" that was developed by the researchers was used as the data collection tool in the study and the SPSS-22 program was used for data analysis. The KMO coefficient KMO=0.927 and the Bartlett test (p=0.000) calculated to determine the suitability for factor analysis were found to be significant within the scope of the validity study of the data obtained in this scale development study. As a result of the factor analysis, the Light Pollution Awareness Scale was determined as 20 items. The Cronbach's Alpha Reliability Coefficient of the scale was found to be α=0.917, and the Spearman-Brown Split half Test Correlation was calculated as 0.85. Descriptive statistics were used in the analysis of the data, and the comparisons were made with a t-test and One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for independent groups. According to the findings obtained in the analysis, the average difference of 3.84 points between female students and male students participating in the study in favor of female students was statistically significant (t(3.202)=244; p<.001). The difference in awareness score (1.91 points) between the students who went to the observatory and those who did not go to the observatory was not found to be statistically significant in favor of the students who did not go to the observatory (t(-712)=27.82; p>.05). The difference in terms of the awareness score of 2.32 points in favor of the students observing the sky was not found to be significant between the students watching the sky and those not watching the sky (t(1.486)=27.82; p>.05). According to the parent's educational level variables, the mean differences between the students' light pollution awareness averages were not found to be significant (F(3-245)=.760 and F(3-243)=.744; p>.05, respectively), the results were discussed based on the literature data and some recommendations were made.