Kids, cars and conservation: children's ideas about the environmental impact of motor vehicles

Abstract

The ideas of children about the environmental impact of motor vehicles have been explored using an open‐form questionnaire. The children were from British National Curriculum Years 7 (age 11/12 years), 9 (age 13/14) and 11 (age 15/16). Children appear to think in different ways about the social and environmental costs of motoring. First, children were aware of the danger of direct physical injury from vehicles. Second, many children raised ideas of vehicle emissions, air pollution and human respiratory problems. These ideas were offered more frequently by the older children, suggesting a development of thinking to embrace more abstract, indirect effects of vehicles. Third, children, especially older children, raised ideas about vehicles and global environmental problems. However, the problem with which vehicles were most frequently associated, erroneously, was ozone layer damage. It is suggested that this persistent misconception is a product of more general failure to distinguish between the specific causes and consequences of particular environmental problems. The intrinsic interest of pupils in ‘the environment’ and in cars may provide opportunities for both environmental education and curriculum science teaching.