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Schoolchildren around the world are going on strike to try to spur action on climate change. But what they do at school could also be really important.

A study in North Carolina has shown that giving children hands-on lessons on climate change and getting them to talk to their parents about it can convince parents who were previously unconcerned that global warming really is a threat. Most strikingly, the biggest effect was on parents who described themselves as conservative. They flipped from being unconcerned on average to being quite concerned.

“Engaging kids like this not only gives them the knowledge to prepare themselves to deal with climate change in the future, it empowers them to make a difference now,” says Danielle Lawson of North Carolina State University, whose team carried out the two-year study. “It supports the efforts we see across the globe, that kids are taking.”

Lawson had 15 volunteer teachers deliver a special curriculum to 11 groups of children aged 10 to 14 in North Carolina. , developed by Lawson’s group, is specifically – that is, kids teaching parents. For instance, parents sometimes accompanied their children on outdoor projects such as measuring plankton levels in the ocean or monitoring the nests of sea turtles.

The children also had to interview their parents, asking questions such as “How many years have you lived in this area of North Carolina?”, “Since living here, have you noticed the typical weather patterns change over time?” and “Do you think the sea level is rising? Why or why not?”.

Moving the needle

The control consisted of 12 groups of children taught the standard curriculum, which includes climate change. Before and afterwards, the children and parents were asked to rate how concerned they were about climate change both personally and for the US generally, using a scale where those who think there’s no reason to worry at all get minus scores, zero is neutral and 1 to 5 reflects increasing concern.

At the end of the study, there was little change in the views of moderate or liberal parents of children taught the standard curriculum. However, the average concern score of the 100 conservative parents of children taught the standard curriculum rose from minus two to zero. It’s not clear if this change was due to talking to their children about global warming or reflects other causes such as . “We didn’t study that part,” says Lawson.

The average score of the 200 conservative parents of children taught the special curriculum rose from minus two to plus two. The score of moderate and liberal parents increased by more than one on average, too. These greater changes can be attributed to the special curriculum. “It gives children a structure to communicate with older generations in a way that hopefully brings us together to work on climate change,” says Lawson.

“Earlier studies have shown that environmental education can have a positive effect on parents,” says John Cook of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University, who was not involved in the study. “The new quirk in this research is showing that the effect is strongest among conservative, sceptical parents.”

That is noteworthy because because there is such a strong divide between conservatives and liberals in the US when it comes to climate. For instance, a poll in 2016 – the year the study began – found that think that climate change is a very serious problem, compared with 70 per cent of Democrats.

It is also notoriously hard to change the minds of those sceptical about climate change. “Given that most people, even those concerned about climate change, don’t talk about climate change with friends and family, using education to break climate silence is powerful and impactful,” says Cook.

Next, Lawson hopes to study whether children can also influence the views of their extended families, and local politicians.