Analysis of Factors Encouraging Students to Take the Earth Science Course at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences: Survey on Student Attitudes

Abstract

An attitude survey is conducted on students taking the Earth Science course at Nihon University College of Law. The survey analyzes factors that encourage students in the humanities and social sciences to take the Earth Science course. Data are collected in the first semester of 2021 through a web-based survey via Google Forms, with a total of 689 respondents. The course’s themes are meteorology and climatology. The results reveal that students who took Geography B in high school showed a great interest in natural disasters, while students who took Geography B and Geoscience in high school showed a strong interest in global warming. It was also revealed that students in the humanities and social sciences emphasize knowledge acquisition over comprehension in science courses. This suggests that in order to encourage liberal arts students to take science courses, it is necessary to include in the course contents both knowledge that is useful in daily life and knowledge on disaster prevention. In addition, the syllabus should emphasize that this knowledge can be acquired by taking the course.