The opinions of secondary school students in Turkey regarding renewable energy

The purpose of this study was to determine the opinions of secondary school students in Turkey regarding renewable energy resources. To this end, a 26-item questionnaire, developed by Kilinc et al. [1], was administered to a total of 445 students in seventh and eighth grades. In addition, three open-ended questions were asked of the students in order to determine their level of knowledge regarding renewable energy resources and power stations. The study data were analyzed using the SPSS statistical package program. The study results revealed that most students first heard about the concept of renewable energy when they were in secondary school (55.7%) and elementary school (24.5%). In addition, the students generally knew about renewable energy sources and their importance, although they lacked knowledge about certain aspects of renewable energy. Furthermore, the students were, in general, of the opinion that electricity from renewable energy resources is cheap, reliable, and fully replenishable; that power stations producing electricity from these energy sources are generally safe and harmless to living organisms; and that their use does not contribute to global warming. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.