Undergraduate Students' Scientifically Informed Decision Making About Socio-Hydrological Issues

Although knowledge of disciplinary concepts and epistemic understanding of science are foundations of scientific literacy, students must learn to apply their knowledge to real-world situations. To engage effectively with contemporary waterrelated challenges with scientific and social dimensions, students need to understand the properties of water and the nature of scientific processes and practices. However, students have difficulty in understanding core hydrologie concepts, and more work is needed to determine how they structure their decision making about socio-hydrological issues. In this study, we investigated undergraduate students ' decision making with a focus on the resources they leveraged to make and support their decisions about socio-hydrological issues. We show that students (a) more effectively articulated a decision than provided support for their decision, (b) typically either included both statements of scientific information and rationale for their opinions within their decision or included neither, and (c) have difficulty transferring the decision-making framework to a voting scenario. Findings provide insight into the development of scientific literacy and engagement with decision making about socio-hydrological issues among undergraduate students.