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Anthropogenic climate change is a complicated issue involving scientific data and analyses as well as political, economic, and ethical issues. In order to capture this complexity, we developed an interdisciplinary student and faculty collaboration by (1) offering introductory lectures on scientific and ethical methods to two classes, (2) assigning the same technical and opinion texts about anthropogenic climate change to both classes, and (3) coordinating multidiscipline discussions with students about their common reading assignments. Student learning was documented using identical pre- and postcollaboration surveys. We hypothesized that students would be better prepared to understand and engage in public debate about anthropogenic climate change if they were first taught to distinguish clearly between scientific and ethical claims. Our results from pre- and postcollaboration surveys support our hypothesis; as students showed an increased understanding of the distinction between science and ethics, they were better able to critically analyze popular articles and to develop their own questions about anthropogenic climate change. The results also suggest that our students were more prepared to think critically about scientific inquiry than about ethical inquiry regarding anthropogenic climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change education in the southeastern United States can be challenging. Due to economic factors, as well as the conservative political and faith perspectives typical of the region, high proportions (40%) of the population are not engaged, not convinced, or doubt Earth's climate is changing or that climate change has anthropogenic causes. Finding ways to bring such people into the climate change conversation is a crucial first step. This paper describes a public dialogue approach that brings together scientists with heterogeneous groups of faith, leisure/outdoor, educator, and agriculture communities to promote perspective sharing in an open and safe environment. It also describes the research we conducted on participants' experiences. Participants' postdialogue responses showed that they rated their learning about policies that might address climate change more strongly than their learning about climate science or the impacts of climate change. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of postdialogue evaluations found that three factors explained 63% of the variability in the data and represented substantively distinct components of participants' experiences: (1) feeling respected, (2) learning about climate science and policy content, and (3) learning about faith-based and other new and different perspectives about the issue. Qualitative findings supported quantitative results, suggesting that respondents felt comfortable speaking freely about their views on climate change, politics, and religion and that they valued engaging with diverse groups to have an open discussion about climate change. The dialogue approach has potential to depolarize climate change discourse through relationship building so that diverse communities can engage in productive and civil conversations expressing multiple perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This curriculum and instruction paper describes initial implementation and evaluation of remote-sensing exercises designed to promote post-secondary climate literacy in the geosciences. Tutorials developed by the first author engaged students in the analysis of climate change data obtained from NASA satellite missions, including the LANDSAT, MODIS, ASTER, SSMIS, AIRS and GRACE instruments. The tutorials incorporated image processing technology through software such as ESRI's ArcGIS and ERDAS Imagine. The relative emphasis on the technological tools versus the application to improving knowledge about climate change was adjusted across implementation in three geography courses. The adjustment of the relative emphasis placed on four primary teaching and learning objectives provides a framework for considering adaptation of the exercises across the educational spectrum. For example, activities are already being designed to expand to secondary school and general elective undergraduate geography courses. Online material provides full details for implementation of each exercise and associated student-generated products. Pre- and post-course surveys provided student perspectives about the courses and their learning. Student performance on completion of the tutorials was monitored by the instructor and performance on independent course projects evaluated students' ability to learn and apply their knowledge and skills to problems of their choice. Survey and performance data illustrated that the tutorials were successful in meeting their intended learning objectives. Discussion highlights the unique opportunities these tutorials provided to engage introductory and advanced students in authentic and relevant analysis of satellite data to explore climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the need for effective climate change education is growing, this area of geoscience also poses unique educational challenges. These challenges include the politicization of climate change, the psychological and affective responses it elicits, and common misconceptions, which can all create barriers to learning. Here, we present an instructional approach and curriculum materials that combine climate change education with media literacy through student production of public service announcements (PSAs). The purpose of this work was to use student media projects as a means to elicit active, affective, social, and analytic learning of climate change science content, with the goals of increasing engagement and intrinsic motivation and fostering deeper learning about climate change through students' efforts to educate others. These projects also improve video literacy and associated 21st century communication and information technology skills. We incorporated a PSA production project as a culminating assignment in an advanced university course on climate change and developed associated curriculum materials for preproduction (research, planning, script-writing, creating storyboards, etc.), production (filming, creating visual and audio assets), and postproduction (editing, distribution) phases as part of the Climate Education in an Age of Media, or CAM, Project. Student and audience learning outcomes were assessed by a team of external evaluators. Both student producers and viewers showed gains in climate literacy. Qualitative analysis of student experiences revealed high levels of intrinsic motivation and engagement with the project, critical thinking, social learning, an interest in climate change that reached beyond the course, and a sense of empowerment and agency. While our focus was on a university-level course targeted primarily to science majors, our work with other educators has indicated that this approach has the potential to be an effective climate change education tool in a variety of instructional settings, ranging from middle school to informal high school education and graduate school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authentic scientific data, when richly contextualized, can provide the basis for compelling learning experiences. Many undergraduate students either do not have access to primary data, or if they do, the data are so abstract that student engagement is limited. Here, we describe contextual information and data-rich, student-centered activities we developed to give life to data sets from an intensely studied place, the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL). The project Web site, Digital RMBL, highlights charismatic organisms, scientists, and long-term data sets as a tool for engaging students who are unable to physically visit a field station. The Biology of Climate Change module, the focus of this paper, has been tested in college-level classrooms by 10 collaborating faculty and 243 undergraduate students at a variety of colleges and universities across the nation. Authentic long-term data sets, primary literature, data visualizations, and a flexible format suitable for laboratory sections have led to very high usability ratings by collaborating faculty. In student surveys, a surprising number of undergraduate science majors (20%--30%) report that they have never worked with authentic scientific data--even at major research universities. The percentage of students who have not worked with data is much higher at collaborating 2 y institutions (60%--80%). The majority of students report that they appreciate the opportunity to explore long-term climate science data sets despite the frustrations they experience with the "messiness" of authentic scientific data. The impact of this climate change activity is achieved through engagement with people, place, and research subjects, followed by student-centered data exploration that builds personal interest and scientific discovery skills. This paper outlines one model in which scientists can meet funding agency requirements to share data publicly while providing excellent opportunities for improving climate and data literacy at the college level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports on an effort to illustrate the coupling of educational research with ongoing curriculum development to promote effective and evidence-based online learning. The research findings have been used to inform the EarthLabs curriculum development team as they revise existing modules and create new modules, in order to represent the ways in which such research findings can be used to improve similar online curriculum materials and enhance student learning outcomes. EarthLabs curriculum is a suite of online inquiry-based activities that promote understanding of Earth system science. Assessments were employed to understand student learning about complex climate systems as a result of their engagement with the online EarthLabs curriculum. Collection of pre- and postcourse student assessment data (n = 205), classroom observations during implementation (n = 6), teacher interviews (n = 7), and eye-tracking data (n = 49) were included in the study. Qualitative and quantitative findings show that EarthLabs classroom implementation significantly improves students' conceptual and systems understanding and that students and external users are appropriately engaged with the online materials. These findings have been applied to evaluating the efficacy of the EarthLabs program in reaching target programmatic and learning goals, as well as to developing a broader understanding of the cognitive challenges students have in navigating complex Earth systems phenomena, where continued EarthLabs program revision has occurred through design-based research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The climate change community has begun to look carefully at how the public understands, or fails to understand, climate change and the scientific claims made based on data. This study focuses on how teachers provide scaffolding that supports students' understanding of, not only how climate systems work or the causes and effects of climate change, but also how we know what we know. Stanford's Global Climate Change: Professional Development for K-12 Teachers project provided teacher professional development on the science of global climate change, curricular materials, and pedagogical strategies. We conducted an in-depth study of the classrooms of the participating teachers. Our results show statistically significant gains from pre- to postassessment in students' content knowledge and a shift in their opinions about climate change. These gains are positively related to the percentage of students who are engaged and interacting, and negatively related to the percentage of students who are disengaged. Through classroom observations and video recordings, we identify how teachers and students talk about how we know about climate change, and we discuss how that talk can be enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educators at America's Zoos and Aquariums have the potential to have extensive impact on the public's knowledge about climate change. However, evidence suggests that educators at these institutions may not be taking full advantage of these opportunities. The present research suggests that about one-third to two-thirds of these educators would like to say more about climate change than they currently do. Anticipated audience responses to messaging were examined as a possible barrier. Results indicate that educators are not particularly concerned about those who doubt or deny climate change. Instead they are relatively more concerned about visitors' disinterest in climate change. The results suggest that, in order to increase educators' tendency to more fully say what they would like to say about climate change to visitors, it would be helpful to build educators' confidence not only about visitors' receptivity to climate change information but also their confidence in their ability to present climate change information. This includes confidence in their knowledge about how to strategically present climate change information, their ability to make connections between global climate change and local environmental problems, and their ability to reach youth audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined students' knowledge, perceptions, and capability to communicate about climate change before and after taking a graduate-level global climate change education course. The 15 students in this study, as typical of many environmental education students in the master's program, had diverse backgrounds, often with weak academic preparation in science. This course was not only designed to help these students understand climate change education, but also to review fundamental Earth, life, and physical science concepts. Students' knowledge of climate change increased significantly after completing the course. Students' perceptions about climate change became significantly more aligned to those of climate scientists. Students' postcourse questionnaires and science journals were analyzed for insights into the effectiveness of the curriculum and instructional approach of the course. Because these students will pursue informal and formal environmental education careers, this study has important implications for the communication of science, and climate change in particular, in the context of public environmental education and formal school settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are the first set of U.S. national science standards to explicitly include the topic of global climate change. With this new emphasis in K-12 science education, geoscience educators will likely play a central role in shaping a nation of citizens capable of understanding and making informed decisions about global climate change. In charting a path forward, it is timely to consider the ways in which geoscience educators can be effectively prepared and supported as climate change education leaders. In this article, we analyze the inclusion of climate change in the Next Generation Science Standards and review existing literature on professional development related to climate change education. Literature in this domain underscores the complex nature of climate change, curriculum and instruction challenges related to teaching the topic, recommended practices for teacher education and professional development, and the emerging role of technology integration for addressing climate change in the science classroom. Finally, we present one approach to teacher professional development around climate change education, emphasizing: (1) the need for quality standards-aligned curricular resources to support climate change instruction, especially those that integrate technology; (2) the potential of regional observations-focused learning progressions for making climate change personally relevant to learners; and (3) the value of research-based professional development and teacher education for advancing climate change education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past 10 years, a climate change course has been offered in a large Midwest university. This course has been focusing on improving college students' scientific knowledge of climate change and human interactions using historical evidence as well as improving their information literacy in science through a course project that requires students to prepare a group presentation and a paper about an example of historical evidence of climate change and human interactions. This study evaluates the course's impact on students' learning of climate change and human interaction and improvement of information literacy in science based on students' responses to several questionnaires and interview data collected through the academic year of 2009. Results show that even if individual students had a different level of background knowledge of climate change and human interactions before the course, their content knowledge improved through the course. The students agreed that the course positively affected their information literacy in science (climate change) and interest. However, they neither disagreed nor agreed that they learned science knowledge relevant to their everyday lives and current socioeconomic issues related to climate change. They also thought that their environmental behavior did not change much as a result of the course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curriculum materials designed to provide students with practice interpreting plotted evidence of global climate change were developed using graphs from the scientific literature and tested with one hundred urban high school students from a high-poverty school in a major northern city in the US. The graph interpretation lessons followed a constructivist-teaching learning cycle format. Additional activities included watching videos related to climate change and completing a graphing exercise. Students displayed motivation during the lessons along with significant improvement from pretest to posttest in graph interpretation skills and content knowledge of organisms affected by climate change. Student motivation was revealed by task commitment during the exercises as well as requests for additional activities related to investigating environmental effects on organisms and stopping global climate change. The efficacy of the lessons is attributed to the concrete, manipulative nature of the graph interpretation sets, real-world connections of the topic, the focus on interesting organisms, the opportunity for students to express their views, and the use of multi-media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deals with a study which described the development of a computer model of the Earth's climate system through the use of the STELLA computer program to enable undergraduate students to understand the response of the global climate to changes. Information on the Earth's climate system; Construction of the STELLA model of the climate system; Energy fluxes derived from the study.