To develop effective measures to improve climate change education (CCE), it is essential to determine the current state of affairs: How well do young people know about climate change? Do they have sufficient basic knowledge of the climate system to understand climate change and its consequences? Can they handle information on scientific findings, draw conclusions from it and distinguish facts from expressions of opinion?
In the ProBiKlima project, we are developing a computer-based competence test to assess these central aspects of basic CCE, i.e. "climate literacy". Based on the large PISA surveys, the focus here is less on testing whether the young people know and can reproduce certain facts, but rather to test whether they can apply their knowledge in solving climate-relevant problems.

Since CCE is not dealt with in a single school subject, but climate-relevant topics play a role in many, if not all, subjects, the tasks for the competency test are created by an interdisciplinary research team  from different disciplines and related didactics (geography, biology, physics, technology, political science, economics, theology, nutrition and health sciences, consumption studies as well as fashion and textiles).
However, it is not knowledge and the ability to apply this knowledge to problems alone that determine our actions. Instead, climate-relevant behavior is also influenced by other characteristics, such as attitudes and motivation. In order to investigate how these factors interact, the test will also include questionnaires on motivation and attitudes as well as self-reported behavior.
The aim of the project is to create and validate the measurement instrument in the target group of 9th grade students from all types of schools in Baden-Württemberg. If the validation is successful, the competence test can then be used on a large scale to determine the need for further CCE measures nationally and to check the success of such measures.