Films as a tool for climate education: A quasi-experimental intervention amongst middle school children from the Indian Himalayan Region

This study examines the effectiveness of film-based interventions in climate education among middle school children in Kangra District, Himachal Pradesh, India. Using a cluster-based quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test design, 135 students from three government schools were divided into higher and lower climate vulnerability exposure groups based on their reported experiences with local hazards (e.g., landslides, water shortages, forest fires). The intervention consisted of screening the animated film “Tomorrow” (2019) in Hindi, followed by post-intervention assessment. Data analysis applied Generalised Linear Mixed Models (GLMM) to measure knowledge gains and the influence of lived exposure.

Key findings show significant improvement in students’ climate change knowledge after the film intervention, with all nine measured knowledge domains showing gains of 15–25%. Students with higher lived exposure demonstrated consistently larger gains (from 33.1% to 69.3%), compared to their lower-exposure peers (from 38.1% to 52.5%). The study concludes that narrative-driven films are an effective, low-cost supplement to climate education and recommends systematically embedding contextually relevant films within school curricula. It underscores that vulnerability can be used pedagogically to connect scientific concepts with students’ lived realities and calls for the integration of such interventions into broader climate literacy and resilience strategies for climate-sensitive regions.