FIRST-YEAR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' SCIENTIFIC LITERACY AND ENGAGEMENT WITH SOCIOSCIENTIFIC ISSUES

This dissertation explores scientific literacy among first-year university students through analysis of their engagement with and perceptions of socioscientific issues. The research was conducted at a regional campus of a public land-grant institution in the American Pacific Northwest, where the impacts of climate change, the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, and rapidly accelerating energy demands have brought socioscientific issues into the public discourse. Undergraduates, who are joining the electorate and preparing to enter the workforce, must develop the competencies to make informed decisions about these issues impacting their personal lives, their communities, and the region. To investigate students’ scientific literacy, their use and trust of sources of scientific information, and their perceptions and behaviors related to socioscientific issues, a survey with both closed and open-ended items was developed, piloted, and administered to a representative sample of 110 first-year students. This yielded a combination of descriptive and statistical data that were analyzed and integrated to reveal comprehensive answers to the research questions. Findings demonstrated significant variations in students’ use and trust in sources of scientific information, with digital media and artificial intelligence applications emerging as popular yet polarizing sources. Statistical analysis revealed variation in scientific literacy across demographic groups and correlations between students’ self-perceived and measured scientific literacy. The results of the research challenge previous findings by demonstrating that greater levels of scientific literacy predict greater concern for socioscientific issues, regardless of political ideology. Implications for undergraduate science education include integrating contemporary and locally relevant socioscientific issues into introductory science courses, which may foster scientific literacy among first-year university students by allowing them to connect concepts learned in the classroom to their own lived experiences.