Seneca Polytechnic
AC-6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

The literacy assessment was developed based on the course material of INX117 together with an analysis of the similar survey materials available on the STARS website. Appropriate questions from STARS surveys recommended as exemplary were used together with additional questions geared to the context of Seneca and its situation as a Canadian institution. The survey was deliberately kept short to encourage completion and minimize the demands made on student attention. The assessment was adopted and administered in January 2023.

The assessments were administered as a blackboard survey twice: once in the second week of the course, once in the last week for the winter term of 2023. Students were given clear instructions that they would not receive marks based on the correctness of their answers to the factual questions. To encourage participation, students were given 1 bonus mark towards the final course grade for each of the two surveys.

Overall, the students scored significantly higher on average in the post-assessment compared to the pre-assessment.

For the five statements on the sustainability attitudes, which were informed by the knowledge that the students’ possessed, there was a significant increase in the numbers of students indicating either strongly agreed or agree to the statements in the post-assessment compared to the pre-assessment. For example, on Statement 3 (It is important to limit human-caused global temperature increase to 2 degrees or less.), the numbers of students indicating their responses as strongly agree or agree greatly increased from 65% in pre-assessment to 93% in post-assessment. On Statement 5 (I try to live and live in sustainable ways.), the numbers of students indicating their responses as strongly agree or agree increased from 76% in pre-assessment to 87% in post-assessment.

On the 10 questions testing the sustainability knowledge of the students, there was a significant increase in the average score received by the students from 62% for the pre-assessment to 76%.for the post-assessment.

Below are the breakdown results of individual questions. The pre-assessment indicated 71% of students correctly defining sustainable development, while 94% identified the purpose of the ozone correctly. 88% of students demonstrated an understanding of the effect that human action has on climate, while 71% identified the main contributor to human-caused climate change correctly. Additionally, 65% correctly identified the annual deaths associated with air pollution.

Students were least familiar with sustainability-related policies and statistics related to GHG per capita and biodiversity loss. 35% of students are aware of Canada’s legal commitment to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and 41% are aware of the 2030 target year for the UN to achieve the sustainable development goals. (SDGs). Although 71% of students are aware of the country with the highest total greenhouse gas emissions, just 41% of students correctly chose The United States of America as the country that had the highest per-capita greenhouse gas emissions, which was the minority pick over China (53%). Additionally, 35% selected land use change as the most significant cause of biodiversity loss globally, with the second most popular choice being pollution (35%).

Of the 17 students who responded in the pre-assessment, 23.5% provided correct answers for at least eight questions (out of 10) on the sustainability knowledge section. On average the students answered 6 out of 10 questions correctly. The average score was a 6 (60.0%), with a standard deviation of 1.97. The average score for the class was 62%.

For the post-assessment, there was an increase of 2% of students correctly defining sustainable development, and a 6% increase in those who identified the purpose of ozone correctly. Also, 93% of students demonstrated an understanding of the effect that human action has on climate, and there was a 15% increase in correct identification of the annual deaths associated with air pollution. However, there was a decrease of 11% for the students that identified the main contributor to human-caused climate change.

Generally, students indicated in the post assessment much more familiarity with sustainability-related policies and statistics related to GHG per capita and biodiversity loss. Most students were aware of Canada’s legal commitments and the target year for UN’s SDGs. There was also a 9% increase in those aware of the country with the highest total greenhouse gas emissions, and a 12% increase in those who chose the United States as the country with the highest per-capita greenhouse gas emissions. One of the highest improvements was their understanding of land use change as the most significant cause of biodiversity loss globally, which improved by 45%.

Out of 15 students who responded in the post-assessment, 64% provided correct answers for at least eight questions (out of 10) on the sustainability knowledge section. The average score was a 76% with a standard deviation of 1.77. The average score for the class was 76%.