How much should the public know about climate science?

Student Conceptions about the Greenhouse Effect, Global Warming, and Climate Change," is more than a science education assessment study. This article confirms and adds to our understanding of what the broad public does and does not know about the science of climate change, and it raises several important questions. The subset of the public sampled in this research consists of 51 students, 39 in junior high school and 12 in high school, all of whom attend schools in small rural communities in the mid-western United States. We are told only a few other facts about these 51 students, such as that they completed the assessment study, "prior to any classroom instruction on the greenhouse effect, global warming, and climate change."