Having a science identity, at its heart, means seeing yourself as a “science person” (McCartney et al., 2022). A key part of this, according to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), is possessing a sense of environmental awareness, concern, and agency (OECD, 2023): in short, knowing about, being worried about, and feeling like you can do something about the environmental problems plaguing today’s world. These values are not innate, but learnt. Environmental education plays an essential role in instilling these three values, and thus science identity, in modern students from an early age.
How environmental education promotes environmental awareness in today’s students is rather straightforward: it provides them with knowledge about the natural world and the problems it now faces. As a student myself, my own environmental education began early, both within and outside school; my parents, primary school, and books alike equipped me with a basic understanding of pollution, climate change, and so on, and why these issues had come about in the first place, developing my awareness of these environmental problems.
That knowledge, of course, sparked a certain concern for the environment among my former classmates and me; we had been shown how severe environmental problems’ consequences for both the environment and humanity could be, ranging from the ecological damage caused by oil spills to the increased risk of certain diseases linked to air pollution. That sentiment, however, was assuaged somewhat when we were taught not only about the solutions to such problems, but also that we could contribute to said solutions: that there were things we, even as students, could personally do to help the environment, such as reducing waste and recycling. In so doing, we gained a sense of environmental agency.
It wasn’t until later, in secondary school and onward, that we were taught about the true complexity of these environmental problems. Our prior environmental education proved instrumental, then, in encouraging us to face them regardless of how difficult such a task would be. The environmental agency it had instilled was driven in part by a feeling of responsibility: that we could, and therefore should resolve the myriad man-made environmental issues to the best of our ability. As humans in general, we ought to advocate for recycling and energy conservation; as “science people” in particular, we could further our studies in scientific fields and work to find new solutions to existing environmental problems.
All in all, environmental education is the key to promoting the development of science identity in modern students by teaching them environmental awareness, concern, and agency throughout childhood and beyond.
References
McCartney, M., Roddy, A. B., Geiger, J., Piland, N. C., Ribeiro, M. M., & Lainoff, A. (2022).
Seeing Yourself as a Scientist: Increasing Science Identity Using Professional
Development Modules Designed for Undergraduate Students. Journal of Microbiology &
Biology Education . https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00346-21
OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). (2023, May). PISA 2025
Science Framework (Draft) [Review of PISA 2025 Science Framework (Draft) ]. PISA
2025 Science Framework; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
https://pisa-framework.oecd.org/science-2025/assets/docs//PISA_2025_Science_Framework.pdf
By Crystal Pun, HKU BSc Year 3 Student
Posted on 4 Mar 2025
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