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

The understanding of pupils between the ages of 11 and 16 about the oz one layer - what it is, what will damage it and what will be the likel y result of such damage - has been studied. Following the use of a pre liminary open-form questionnaire, the ideas of a large cohort of child ren have been probed by closed-form questionnaire and by interviews wi th a subset of this group. The authors explain that most pupils seem a ware that the ozone layer is a layer of gas around Earth, but less sur e what that gas is. They also know that it protects Earth from ultra-v iolet rays from the sun, and that further depletion will allow more ul tra-violet to Earth and cause more skin cancer. Most also know that on e cause of depletion is the use of CFCs, but many confuse the depletio n of the ozone layer with the greenhouse effect and other forms of atm ospheric pollution. The authors provide evidence to suggest that such confusion of ideas is strongly held and that, even with this relativel y new and abstract phenomenon, ideas are held in a consistent and simi lar framework by most pupils.