The ESERA conference is a premier international forum for science education research and brings together over 1,700 researchers from more than 65 countries.
The title of her presentation was “Climate Change Perspectives: A Longitudinal Study of U.S. Appalachian Young Adults Over a Decade.”
Cartwright, who has been at Marshall since 2007, teaches courses in science for elementary education majors that include earth and space science, physical science and elementary science methods. A first-generation college student, she grew up in Putnam County and attended West Virginia University and Florida State University.
“I began this research in 2011 and completed it in 2022, following a group of Appalachian students over a decade to understand how their ideas about weather, climate and climate change developed,” Cartwright said. “The project involved interviews with the same five participants at three stages of their lives, analyzed through the lens of common misconceptions and the framework of socioscientific capital.
“Our team of science education researchers designed and taught an initial climate change unit while they were in middle school, then tracked participants’ evolving ideas across adolescence and young adulthood.”
The project highlights how misconceptions persist or shift only when young people encounter meaningful educational and life experiences, she said. She hopes it provides valuable insights for teachers preparing future generations to understand climate change.
“Longitudinal studies like this are rare in science education, but they provide unique insights into how students’ ideas about climate change evolve over time, offering evidence that shorter studies cannot capture,” she said.
Showcasing the work at this prestigious international conference was both an honor and a wonderful opportunity to shine a light on Appalachia, she said.
“I am honored to be invited to share this work at an international conference, as it highlights the importance of Appalachian voices in global conversations about climate change education,” she said. “For Marshall, it affirms our role as a leader in preparing future teachers and advancing research that connects local contexts to worldwide challenges.”
For more information about Marshall’s College of Education and Professional Development, visit https://www.marshall.edu/coepd/.