- There are six climate change topics ("beats") to support the current high school curriculum. Students in the science classes complete a climate change project.
- Each teacher in the high school English or journalism class assigns one of the climate change topics to ScienceBEAT "reporters."
- Each "reporter" produces three informational texts ("news stories") by applying strategies from lessons and activities in six ScienceBEAT modules (listed below).
- Finally, students in the school's earth science class are assigned to read and critically review the climate stories that are posted by reporters.
THE SIX MODULES IN THE CLIMATE CHANGE PILOT ARE:
1. What IS the greenhouse effect?
2. What IS climate change?
3. What ARE the predictions?
4. What risks and consequences are possible?
5. What are the risks to our health?
6. What are some solutions?
Expected
Outcomes of this educational initiative:
We predict that a more interdisciplinary and
collaborative approach to climate change education, which includes interactivity
with data, interviews of experts, and the simulation of writing “news” about
different risks, outcomes, and solutions for climate change will significantly
increase student: (1) Awareness, (2)
Understanding, (3) Accurate facts, and (4)
Informed Writing about climate change.
Deliverables
The six pilot modules
proposed for development - and detailed below - include: 1. Interpreting and
explaining complex information about climate change, 2. What is climate change? 3. What are the climate predictions?
4. What are the risks and
consequences of climate change? 5. What are the risks to our health?
6. What are possible solutions for climate change?
Module
1. Interpreting
and explaining complex information about climate change
Objective: Students will learn strategies to interpret and write three different types of explanatory text for
science and health topics such as climate change (Rowan, 1985, 1999). Module 1 introduces students to research-
based evidence and examples from science journalism and educational psychology (Mayer, 1985) that address how
digital users seek, select, share, and learn from media (Tremayne & Dunwoody, 2001). The challenge is competing
with an overwhelming amount of online information to inform the public, especially when younger users are not
engaging with important topics because they can’t understand it or can’t apply the information to their own lives.
Module 1, which will be utilized in each of the five subsequent modules, guides students in how to structure clear
explanatory text about climate change for general audiences and recognize the four key components of:
personalization, interactivity, coherence of media (text, data graphs, video, etc.) with minimal “kick-outs” (or
elements that terminate user engagement and understanding).
Objective: Students will learn strategies to interpret and write three different types of explanatory text for
science and health topics such as climate change (Rowan, 1985, 1999). Module 1 introduces students to research-
based evidence and examples from science journalism and educational psychology (Mayer, 1985) that address how
digital users seek, select, share, and learn from media (Tremayne & Dunwoody, 2001). The challenge is competing
with an overwhelming amount of online information to inform the public, especially when younger users are not
engaging with important topics because they can’t understand it or can’t apply the information to their own lives.
Module 1, which will be utilized in each of the five subsequent modules, guides students in how to structure clear
explanatory text about climate change for general audiences and recognize the four key components of:
personalization, interactivity, coherence of media (text, data graphs, video, etc.) with minimal “kick-outs” (or
elements that terminate user engagement and understanding).
Module
2. What
is climate change?
Objective: Students will learn the
basic factors that govern human and natural influences on global climate.
Module 2 will explain that climate is the long
term average of weather and will outline how human activities have modified
past climate and may influence future climate.
The focus will be the rise in global mean surface temperature (GMST)
from pre-industrial to the present (Canty, Mascioli, Smarte, & Salawitch, 2013). Using a series of graphic elements, students will analyze the
unmistakable human fingerprint on GMST over time. This module will also quantify the effects of
solar activity, oceanic processes, and major volcanoes on climate and introduce
the conundrum affecting the accuracy of climate predictions. This includes the
uncertainty of aerosols on the rate of warming. Students will write
informational texts that can these uncertainties and processes to a general
audience.
Module
3. What are the climate predictions?
Objective: Students will investigate
how scientists make projections of future climate and the uncertainties inherent
in these predictions (Mascioli, Canty, & Salawitch, 2012). This module will begin by defining the positive and
negative feedback mechanisms, which enhance or diminish the influence of
greenhouse gases on climate. The module
will establish the importance of proper quantification of climate feedback for
reliable projections of future global warming. Building off of Module 2: we
will show the uncertainty of future warming is mainly due to the cantilevering
between the strength of radiative forcing of climate by tropospheric aerosols
and climate feedback, both of which are not well known. Students in both science and writing classes
review critical evaluations of the climate projections within Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2013). Students in English and journalism will read
and write informational text that addresses an important axiom of science:
predicting the future is much harder than understanding the past.
Module
4. What
are the risks and consequences of climate change?
Objective: Students will learn how
climate change impacts many aspects of the earth system from a local to global
scale. Module 4 outlines the human impact of climate change from the perspectives
of sea-level rise, loss of habitats, ocean acidification, and the increasing
likelihood of extreme weather events (IPCC, 2013). Module 4 will
emphasize the apparent transformation in the Earth’s climate system: the
expansion of the tropics, the poleward shift of the mid-latitude weather
systems that are leading to rapid warming, particularly in the Arctic region. By
the end of module 4, students will recognize the risks and consequences of
climate change, identify possible responses to the urgent need to slow the rate
of warming, and produce informational text that accurately explains this
science.
Module 5.
How could climate change affect you?
Objective: Students will learn how climate change
is impacting the health of individuals at a local and national
level.
Module 5 expands on extreme events such as heat waves, cold waves, and excessive
precipitation, as well as
how plant and animal life cycle events are influenced by changes in climate. Students will examine how these
events are deviating from the long-term trends in Maryland and the Continental US. Students will learn how to
articulate why the increased frequency/severity of extreme events and the alteration in plant and animal habitats
are affecting the health of Marylanders in the past decade. Module 5 focuses on 3 examples of chronic and
infectious diseases that correspond to the extreme events and changes including: (1) Extreme summer heat and
increased risks of heart attack, (2) Increased precipitation and risks of bacterial infections, and (3) Changes in plant
and animal habitats, higher pollen associated with increasing greenhouse gases and, and increased risks for asthma.
Students will compose informational texts that explain the vulnerability and susceptibility.
how plant and animal life cycle events are influenced by changes in climate. Students will examine how these
events are deviating from the long-term trends in Maryland and the Continental US. Students will learn how to
articulate why the increased frequency/severity of extreme events and the alteration in plant and animal habitats
are affecting the health of Marylanders in the past decade. Module 5 focuses on 3 examples of chronic and
infectious diseases that correspond to the extreme events and changes including: (1) Extreme summer heat and
increased risks of heart attack, (2) Increased precipitation and risks of bacterial infections, and (3) Changes in plant
and animal habitats, higher pollen associated with increasing greenhouse gases and, and increased risks for asthma.
Students will compose informational texts that explain the vulnerability and susceptibility.
Module
6. What
are possible solutions for climate change?
Objective: Students review the
economics and complex governance issues that drive global climate change and the
importance of personal choices for transportation, diet, and entrepreneurship.
The economics of climate change will be addressed by outlining the relative
costs of energy production by solar, wind, hydro, nuclear, and fossil fuels plus
the costs of generating energy by each method. Global governance issues will be
examined by focusing on the impacts of population growth and the necessity of
the Developed World to assist economic growth in the Developing World while
reducing the dependency on fossil fuels, which have been historically over used
in the Developed World. The module
refers to websites that invite students to calculate the possible effects of their
personal carbon footprints. Students will discuss specific actions to reduce carbon
footprints and write explanations for why cooperation between governments could
reduce the rate of warming. Students will produce informational texts that
explain how personal choices contribute to possible solutions.
Student 'reporters" in high school and journalism classes are assigned three climate change "beats" with students in earth science classes. Reporters produce three stories with explanatory media.
THE GOALS FOR THE NEWS STORIES (informational text) FROM WRITING CLASSES
Writing Informational Text With Data
Writing Informational Text With Media
