Climate Science Education â Hope for Our Future - ACS Publications

Chapter 3

Climate Science Education – Hope for Our Future Downloaded by UNIV OF FLORIDA on December 11, 2017 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date (Web): October 23, 2017 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2017-1247.ch003

Gregory P. Foy*,1 and R. Leigh Hill Foy2 1York

College of Pennsylvania, 441 Country Club Rd., York, Pennsylvania 17403, United States 2York Suburban High School, 1800 Hollywood Dr., York, Pennsylvania 17403, United States *E-mail: [email protected].

Climate change is arguably the most significant scientific issue facing the next generation. In order for the world to make appropriate choices for the health of the planet, there needs to be a climate science-literate worldwide population. In this chapter, we examine the state of climate science education around the world, with particular emphasis on the United States. We identify the difficulty in teaching climate science and the social and political challenges that arise from the topic itself. Ultimately, we present real solutions to this education dilemma, and provide a number of resources that climate science educators can readily implement.

Introduction Throughout this book, you will hear from multiple authors offering different perspectives concerning climate change, but the one common refrain will be a focus on education. In this chapter we will investigate the state of climate change education in our country. We will start this discussion by looking at attitudes towards climate change in our country in comparison to international attitudes, then investigate what is being taught in the U.S. along with teacher attitudes, move to impediments hindering climate change education, and finally look at how we can overcome these hurdles and begin to produce a generation that is climate science-literate.

© 2017 American Chemical Society Peterman et al.; Climate Change Literacy and Education The Science and Perspectives from the Global Stage Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

Downloaded by UNIV OF FLORIDA on December 11, 2017 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date (Web): October 23, 2017 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2017-1247.ch003

Science Education in the United States Compared to the Rest of the World Science education in the U.S. has its challenges and critics. Recent research shows it has improved but continues to lag behind many of the top developed nations. If you ask American scientists how well the U.S. is doing in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education, their criticism is stinging—only 16% of American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS) scientists surveyed rank the U.S. K-12 science education as above average or the best in the world (1). In fact, 46% of scientists rank K-12 STEM education as below average. In this same Pew poll, the majority of the public agrees with scientists that U.S. science education is subpar. Could some argue that this perceived educational failing is a major factor in the effort to raise the public’s scientific literacy? It may be easy to point blame at the educational system for the public’s limited knowledge about scientific issues, but as we will see in this chapter, there are other powerful forces at play here influencing the public’s views on science. According to the 2016 Program for International Student Assessment, which tested 15-year-olds around the world in a number of different educational areas, the average science literacy score in the U.S. was 497 points, compared to the average of 501 points for students tested in other countries (2). The Trends in International Math and Science Study (TIMSS) for 2011 showed that the average science score of a U.S. 8th grader (525) was slightly higher than the average for the international student (500) (3). Many have criticized as unfair the international comparison of the U.S. education system (which attempts to achieve educational literacy for all students) to some other country’s educational systems (which focus only on high-achieving students). To this end, the American Institute for Research released a new comparison of the different states in the U.S. to different nations, an acknowledgment of the significant impact socioeconomics factors have on education (4). In this report, AIR researchers summarized that, in fact, 8th graders in most of the U.S. states performed better in science and math in comparison to most nations. But even our best states in science and math education are still behind some of the best international educational programs. “If you think of states and nations as in a race to prepare the future generation of workers, scholars and citizens to be competent and competitive in a technologically complex world, then the states are in the middle of the pack,” said Dr. Gary Phillips, a chief scientist at AIR, former commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, and author of the report. “The bad news is that even our best performing states are running far behind the highest performing countries.” Phillips goes on to say “The report shows the United States needs to substantially increase the scientific and mathematical competency of the general adult population so citizens can better understand and address many of the world’s most pressing problems.” While a mediocre rating in science and math affects our country’s future, it can be argued that a lack of learning in the area of climate science will have an impact on our entire world’s future as our standing as a world superpower necessitates our leadership to deal with this global challenge. 26 Peterman et al.; Climate Change Literacy and Education The Science and Perspectives from the Global Stage Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


Public United States Attitudes about Climate Change vs International Attitudes There are a number of studies that indicate public attitudes towards climate change in the United States are far more negative and at odds with the scientific evidence than international attitudes and understanding. In a Pew Research Center study from November 2015, the authors found a global median of 54% of those surveyed agreed that “Climate change is a very serious problem”and this was contrasted with only 45% of those surveyed in the United States who agree with this statement. Another interesting split found in the study was that a 51% global median recognized “Climate change is harming people now,” whereas in the United States only 41% recognize the current harm climate change is causing. Finally, only 30% of those polled in the U.S. were “ Very concerned that climate change will harm me personally,” and globally that number rises to 40% (5). We must acknowledge that attitudes are not equivalent to education, but we know that attitudes have an extreme influence on education. We can further contrast both the international and the U.S. public attitudes with scientific attitudes. In one of the most comprehensive studies of the peer reviewed literature to date, Cook et. al. find that only 0.7% of 11,944 peer reviewed articles examined during a 21-year period (1991-2012) reject the consensus that humans are the main contributors to recent global warming (anthropogenic global warming or AGW) (6). There are many more interesting findings from this study, including the recognition that the largest percentage of abstracts, 66.4%, do not take a position on AGW. The authors took notice of this and addressed it in their discussion section. They pointed to a previous study by Oreskes in 2007 where she describes how scientists proceed after a consensus has been established “...generally focus their discussions on questions that are still disputed or unanswered rather than on matters about which everyone agrees” (7). In other words, the scientific community doing the research accepts anthropogenic climate change and thus it may not even be stated any more in the abstracts.Many of you who are reading this are practicing scientists, and if you were writing about a research problem that somehow related to the atom, you would not refer to the scientific consensus of modern atomic theory. This is not to say that the consensus cannot be questioned; it must, and it continuously is, but the majority of scientists move forward once a consensus is reached and investigate the unanswered. According to a recent AAAS publication, “Based on well-established evidence, about 97% of climate scientists have concluded that human-caused climate change is happening. This agreement is documented not by just a single study, but by a converging stream of evidence over the past two decades from surveys of scientists, content analyses of peer reviewed studies, and public statements issued by virtually every membership organization of experts in this field” (8).

27 Peterman et al.; Climate Change Literacy and Education The Science and Perspectives from the Global Stage Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


Worldwide Climate Science Education Given the above disparity between public and scientific attitudes, we can now turn our attention to what is happening in the classroom. Because of the wide-ranging impacts of climate change, the topic would lend itself to the crosscurricular educational practices that teachers are encouraged to employ to help make what students are learning in the classroom relevant to their lives. But many teachers do not employ cross-curricular teaching strategies, because they do not feel confident using these strategies (9). In an echo of similar attitudes that researchers found here with U.S. teachers not feeling confident in teaching about the wide-ranging science of climate change (as we will discuss below), a summary of educational practices in the UK reported that teachers do not always feel confident in teaching about topics in a cross-curricular way, because their training and educational background limit them to teaching confidently in only their content areas (9). In a New York Times article entitled “Setbacks Aside, Climate Change Is Finding Its Way Into the World’s Classrooms” the author recognizes the political and financial challenges associated with climate change education but also highlights countries that are making great strides (10). One such country is Ireland, where there is a broad theme of “education for sustainable development,” and climate change is a strong piece of this theme. Even with this forward-looking approach, an overall national strategy is still under development. There are other countries, such as India, which “require” environmental education, but it is a struggle to teach basic science skills, much less the complexities of climate science. A number of island nations participate in a UNESCO effort called Sandwatch, where students are actively measuring the width of beaches and monitoring other parameters to gain an understanding of the impacts of climate change (11). In the United States, the new national Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are not adopted by all states, and many public schools do not attempt to include its recommendations concerning climate science. (We will talk more in depth about the NGSS below.) In summary, the NYT article makes the argument that there is a lack of coherent educational objectives for international climate science education but more research is needed in this area.

Climate Science Education in the United States There are very few studies that provide any global view of what is being taught concerning climate change, but there is a recent significant study produced by the National Center for Science Education titled “Mixed Messages: How Climate Change is Taught in America’s Public Schools,” which can be used extensively to examine how climate science is being taught in U.S. classrooms and to try to understand how teacher attitudes influence the delivery of this information (12). There are several significant and telling findings in this report, and not all the news is bad. The bottom line with climate science education is that most U.S. public school students are getting exposure to climate science. The disturbing news is that students are receiving mixed messages, and teachers do not feel well 28 Peterman et al.; Climate Change Literacy and Education The Science and Perspectives from the Global Stage Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

prepared to teach climate science. So it is well worth the effort to examine this report more fully to understand the current state of climate science education and to hopefully influence the future direction. A few of the positive key findings are: •


•

•

•

Climate change is being taught in the public school system, with almost 75% of public school science teachers self reporting that they are devoting classroom time to the topic of climate change; Almost ALL public school students—90% of public middle schools and 98% of public high schools—teachers report will receive some exposure to recent global warming (RGW); Teachers who cover the topic of RGW are covering the essential topics including the greenhouse effect, the carbon cycle, and some consequences of climate change; and Many teachers are linking climate science to action by discussing positive steps that industry, government, or individuals can take to alleviate RGW.

Unfortunately, students are also being exposed to “mixed messages” and “equal time for opposing viewpoints” concerning climate change: •

• •

30% of teachers report that they are emphasizing that scientists agree on human activity as the primary cause of RGW (a positive since multiple studies report over 97% of climate scientists support this), while other teachers teach their students that “many scientists” see natural causes as the primary cause of RGW (a big negative when the reality is that fewer than 3% of climate scientists hold this position and less than 1% of recently published scientific papers on climate change hold an opposing position as cited earlier in this chapter); More than 25% of teachers give equal time to the position that human activity is not the primary cause of RGW; and. Given these last two points, it is not difficult to believe that most teachers are unaware of the scientific consensus on the anthropogenic cause of climate change or are unable to accept the scientific consensus due to conflicts with their own personal viewpoints.

In an effort to show “both sides” of this emotionally charged issue, many teachers end up “conveying to students that there is legitimate scientific debate instead of deep consensus,” according to a recent study summarized in the journal Science. Indeed, as we are learning more about the social science of the cultural polarization of climate change, teachers, too, are falling into the pattern of their personal beliefs coming into conflict with the best available science that is needed to promote the common understanding of this global scientific challenge (13). This study referenced above also found that teachers felt less “pressured” about teaching climate science than about teaching other controversial science subjects such as evolution (13). However, as we have seen above, teachers themselves are human, and their personal values on this topic affect their ability 29 Peterman et al.; Climate Change Literacy and Education The Science and Perspectives from the Global Stage Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


to teach the science. Teachers may have confusion themselves about what science is, yet they need to reiterate that science is a system in which scientific evidence either supports or does not support a hypothesis. Religion is a system that employs faith or belief in something that is beyond facts. The two are separate entities (14). We, as educators, should not be using the word “believe”, as in making statements that anyone “believes” or “doesn’t believe” in climate change. Rather, we should be asking if the data for climate change supports the body of scientific evidence that humans are changing the climate of the planet. However, a major problem arises when the scientific data conflicts with a person’s beliefs and values. “When science conflicts with a person’s core beliefs, it usually loses,” says Marcia McNutt, editor of the journal Science (15).

Why Is Climate Change Such a Politically Charged Topic? To understand this question, we only need to look back in our history at how long it takes scientific evidence to become accepted by the public. The building of the mountain of scientific evidence that cigarette smoking causes serious health problems began to accumulate in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950’s. The Reports of the Surgeon General from the U.S. Libraries of Medicine recounts that after the 1964 report on smoking and health came out, it took quite a while for public attitudes to catch up to the scientific realities (16). A Gallup poll in 1958 found that only 44% of Americans “believed” that smoking caused cancer, and it took 10 years for the same Gallup poll to reveal that 78% of Americans had come to accept the science (17). Even so, the addictive qualities of nicotine took longer to come to light, and it was not until the 1970s that advertising for tobacco products was banned in the U.S. As it turns out, social science has revealed that there are barriers to the acceptance of the science of climate change, and this helps us understand this human tendency. Dan Kahan’s article in Nature “Why we are poles apart on climate change” blames a “polluted science-communication environment” and personal allegiances that are more valuable than a preponderance of valid scientific data. Kahan writes “People whose beliefs are at odds with those of the people with whom they share their basic cultural commitments risk being labelled as weird and obnoxious in the eyes of those on whom they depend for social and financial support.” In other words, in this age of abundant resources, people filter information. This filter allows them to align with like-minded individuals in their groups who share common values and beliefs. These powerful filters keep valuable scientific information out of certain political, social, family, or religious groups. Kahan blames inflammatory words or “toxic partisan meanings” that are used to communicate about climate change, and this further polarizes the members of our society. He states that “people acquire their scientific knowledge by consulting others who share their values and whom they therefore trust and understand.” Usually this strategy works just fine, but if all people follow this way of learning about science, then “Culturally polarized democracies are less likely to adopt policies that reflect the best available scientific evidence on matters—such as climate change—that profoundly affect their common interests” (18). 30 Peterman et al.; Climate Change Literacy and Education The Science and Perspectives from the Global Stage Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


Indeed, the cover of the March 2015 National Geographic magazine states there is a “War on Science: Climate Change does not exist; Evolution never happened; The Moon landing was faked; Vaccinations can lead to autism; and Genetically modified food is evil.” An article in the magazine titled “The Age of Disbelief” states, “Skepticism about science is on the rise, and polarization is the order of the day. What’s causing reasonable people to doubt reason (15)?” The author reveals that even though there is a preponderance of evidence against each of these statements, certain segments of the population ignore the science and hold their own opinions. If a teacher showed students scientific evidence from a renowned scientist who is an expert in the field or a revered organization like the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the students may refute the scientific data “depending on whether (that scientist’s) view matches the dominant view of their cultural group” (18). In fact this very situation happened in my classroom as I was writing this chapter. While teaching about the science of climate change in my high school chemistry course, I told the students that I was showing them data from NASA, a trusted scientific organization. One student spoke up and said “I don’t trust NASA—they faked the moon landing!” to which I calmly replied, “Then I don’t think the scientific information that I am trying to teach you is going to make it past your filter (Figure 1) (19).”

Figure 1. Filters that lead to a group ignoring the scientific evidence (19). 31 Peterman et al.; Climate Change Literacy and Education The Science and Perspectives from the Global Stage Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


Other Challenges for Educators Teaching about Climate Science Teachers don’t know very much about climate science themselves, and there is a need for workshops and teacher education on this topic. Political science researcher Eric Plutzer and his colleagues list several factors that may help explain why U.S. science teachers are not prepared content-wise, including the fact that when they were trained in colleges and universities, climate change curriculum was probably not taught (13). Plutzer’s research states that fewer than half of the teachers surveyed in the study reported any formal training in climate change science in their academic career. This study also found that two-thirds of teachers would take advantage of continuing education in the area of climate science. Clearly one pressing need to help U.S. science teachers is offering meaningful workshops that provide climate science education for teachers and back up the education with resources that they can easily plug directly into their curriculum. There are many online climate change resources from NASA, NOAA, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and other agencies for teachers to use in their classrooms (see a short list of resources at the end of this chapter), but it can quickly be overwhelming when teachers lack deeply established science content knowledge regarding climate change. Teacher time and resources are also limiting factors in trying to teach about climate science. In this country, as in many others, teachers have to be concerned with high-stakes standardized testing. The vast majority of states require these tests, and therefore the responsibility falls to teachers to prepare students to be successful on these assessments. In fact, many teachers’ evaluations are tied to how their students perform on these standardized tests (20). According to a recent article in the Washington Post, a typical public school student in the U.S. will be required to take 112 standardized tests during his/her school years (21). Most high school science teachers are responsible for some sort of standardized test in their field of science (a complete list is found in the States Summative Assessment – 2015-16) (22). Although some state tests may have questions about climate change, even that creates controversy in some communities surrounding this issue, as evidenced in the article about a local petition to a school board in Colorado to remove anthropogenic climate change questions on Colorado’s assessments (23). And just what kinds of science courses do U.S. high school students take? According to the Education Commision of the States, many U.S. high schools only require three years of science, while some only require two (24). In a position paper, The National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT) states that Earth Science or Geoscience is often taught in middle school, and if it is taught in high school, it may not be credited as a “lab science,” which is seen as less rigorous by college/university admissions and therefore less desirable to take (25). The NAGT goes on to warn that “Virtually all of the issues facing human society surrounding sustainability have roots in the Earth sciences.” Furthermore, the NAGT points out that fewer than 25% of U.S. high school students take a course in Earth science, compared to 91-94% taking a high school course in biology. Because an understanding of Earth systems is essential to the sustainable use of resources (like water), preparing a population of students for 32 Peterman et al.; Climate Change Literacy and Education The Science and Perspectives from the Global Stage Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


geoscience careers in the 21st century—and educating the population on these topics—is why an Earth science education in high schools should be required, according to the NAGT. However, this recommendation faces huge obstacles to implementation in all states due to many significant constraints—public school budgets being one of the most formidable. A high school Earth science course is where many might assume that a climate change curriculum would be taught, yet we cannot at this point in the American public education system depend on this assumption. Therefore, U.S. science teachers must treat climate change education as a cross-curricular topic and teach it in all courses as it pertains to specific disciplines. This is a tall order for science teachers with so much material to cover. During a sabbatical project in 2011, we set out to have conversations with university and high school science teachers in Australia and New Zealand to see what their attitudes were concerning climate change education (26). Our thinking was that these countries would have interesting perspectives compared to those in our country, and yet we have language and many societal practices in common. What we found in these interviews was that while almost all educators at both the high school and collegiate level classified climate change as the “fundamental environmental challenge of our time,” very few actually focused on it in their courses. Most Aussie and Kiwi educators that we interviewed stated that they thought students would get the climate change content in other, more specific content courses, like environmental science courses. The problem, of course, is that the majority of students do not take these specialized science courses. We face a similar problem in this country. Science curriculum traditionally tends to be very narrowly defined, and climate change education is a broad, overarching theme touching on aspects of all of the sciences, including social sciences. As we have seen, many high school science teachers in this country report that they do not feel confident about teaching about climate change, as they have not had specific courses on the topic in college (27). So, in light of all of these challenges, it is our argument that climate science should be taught in context in a cross-curricular approach; i.e., it should be taught in all science courses at all levels as it fits in with the context of those courses. Because no single course can make our future population climate literate, we contend here that this strategy of teaching students about climate science should be employed in our schools across this country.

What Should United States Teachers Be Teaching about Climate Change? So what should teachers in the U.S. be teaching about climate change? Let’s start with a little background about national science standards, which are guidelines developed by professional educators and scientists. Fifteen years ago the gold standard of what should be taught in science classrooms around the country was the National Science Education Standards, developed by the National Research Council (NRC) and the Benchmarks for Science Literacy, developed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (28, 29). 33 Peterman et al.; Climate Change Literacy and Education The Science and Perspectives from the Global Stage Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


Scientific literacy is needed for informed citizens in the 21st century, and science is an ever-changing field. As stated above, several recent studies show U.S. science students lagging behind other developed nations in STEM subjects. So in 2010, in order to meet these needs, the National Academy of Sciences directed the National Research Council (its functional advisory arm) to develop the first step in a set of new and updated science education standards. The result was A Framework for K-12 Science Education, published in 2012 (30). The developers of this framework used the current research on science and scientific learning, but the group needed to further develop the standards of scientific learning. The result of this endeavor was the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), developed by the NRC, AAAS, the National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) and Achieve, Inc, and released to the public in April 2013 (31). Interestingly, this educational initiative was led by states, not the federal government. A group of 21 lead states and 41 writers developed the NGSS based on the framework that was previously developed. According to the latest adoption map, 16 states have currently adopted the NGSS, and many more are in the process (32). Many people who are not familiar with public education standards confuse the Common Core standards with the NGSS. The Common Core standards are only for the English language, the arts, and mathematics. The NGSS includes disciplinary core ideas, crossing cutting concepts, and scientific and engineering practices for K-12 science education. There are many direct references to climate change in the NGSS and also many places where climate change is used as an example of a topic appropriate to its core ideas. The NGSS recognized that this emphasis on climate science would place a heavy expectation on classroom teachers, and so the National Climate Assessment (NCA) was developed to give teachers resources and support (33). The National Climate Assessment was developed through the support of an impressive collaboration of the following federal agencies: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Agency for International Development; United States Department of Agriculture; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); United States Department of Commerce; National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); United States Department of Defense; United States Department of Energy; National Institutes of Health (NIH); United States Department of Health and Human Services; United States Department of State; United States Department of Transportation; United States Geological Survey; United States Department of the Interior; United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); National Science Foundation (NSF); and Smithsonian Institution. 34

Peterman et al.; Climate Change Literacy and Education The Science and Perspectives from the Global Stage Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

We will give specific examples of core ideas in the NGSS and how they could fit into the teaching of climate science in context below. At the end of this chapter, we also provide resources for the teaching of climate science in the classroom.

How Can We Bridge the Gap Between What United States Teachers Are Currently Teaching and What They Should Be Teaching?


Professional Development Opportunities and Teacher Training Teachers need more training in climate change science in professional development opportunities like workshops. “The trick is these [conferees] ‘teachers’ require funding to be able to attend and teachers need their principals’ support to get professional education,” says the NCSE’s Berbeco (27). Simply stated, science teachers need more training to understand climate science itself. We have developed our “Top Ten Climate Change Data Sets that a Science Literate Citizen Should Understand,” but it will take significant teacher training for educators to feel confident in teaching this material to their students (34). Teachers need to be careful to not add to the “polluted science-communication environment that drives people apart” by using polarizing language when teaching about climate change (18). We also need to understand that just showing more scientific data to our students alone will not get all of them to accept the data supporting climate science. Teachers need to recognize that some students in the classroom will have personal values that might lead them to view that scientific data with a different filter, and they may disregard the science if accepting it threatens to dislodge them from their cultural group. At the same time, teachers should not attempt to present the “other side” of climate science in trying to “be fair” as this is not supported by the 97% of the scientific community and should therefore not be presented in a science classroom, as it only leads to confusion about climate science in students’ minds (13). Teachers need training in order to understand the information filters that students bring with them to the classroom. Educators need to learn how to accept and understand these student filters while at the same time using the best teaching practices in our classrooms so we can begin to erode the gap between what scientists know about climate change and what students perceive. With fewer than a quarter of high school students taking any Earth systems courses, and with this content area being foundational for 21st century jobs in sustaining Earth’s resources in a carbon-constrained world, all high school science teachers should teach about climate change in their respective classrooms. This philosophy of teaching climate science in context is a cross-curricular approach that is interdisciplinary and attempts to use climate science as a vehicle to connect what is learned in the classroom to a real-life problem. What should science teachers be teaching about climate change? As stated above, for the first time climate science has been designated as a core concept in a national science curricula, the (NGSS) (31). The American Meteorological Society (AMS) statement about climate science in 2013 emphasizes that it is foundational to science education (35). Their eloquent statement sums it up nicely: “Efforts 35 Peterman et al.; Climate Change Literacy and Education The Science and Perspectives from the Global Stage Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


to properly teach climate science are regularly challenged by those seeking to frame it as somehow different from other scientific subjects, often with claims that it is either ‘uncertain’ or ‘controversial.’ They advocate the need for a special approach to its teaching, such as added effort to balance perspectives. With this statement, the AMS seeks to confirm the solid scientific foundation on which climate change science rests, and to emphasize that teaching approaches different from other sciences are not warranted. Uncertainty is a natural component of all scientific endeavor. The existence of uncertainty does not undermine the scientific validity of climate change science; to the contrary, it provides a sound example for broader instruction of the scientific method (35).” Teachers need to elevate climate literacy in our course goals and teach climate change in context in our science courses. The top national science organizations back up this idea with their position statements on climate change education. Here is a snapshot of their positions on this topic: National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) “Scientists are in broad agreement about the occurrence, causes, and consequences of climate change. Climate science is a framework that integrates all earth systems. It’s the ultimate practical science that allows us to apply science concepts like physics and life science. It essentially integrates all of the sciences in quantitative and societally relevant experience (36).” Dr. David L. Evans, NSTA Executive Director National Academies of Science (NAS) “Ultimately, the ability of the elementary and secondary school systems to provide comprehensive climate literacy education will depend on the systematic availability of quality curriculum resources, impact of curriculum mandates such as state standards and assessment, and, importantly, the preparation of teachers (37).” National Research Council (NRC) “The reality of global climate change lends increasing urgency to the need for effective education on earth system science, as well as on the human and behavioral dimensions of climate change, from broad societal action to smart energy choices at the household level (38).” National Science Foundation (NSF) “Climate science is complex and interdisciplinary, and therefore not an easy subject to teach,” says Dave Campbell, a program director at NSF. “It takes time for modern science to make it into textbooks, so teachers rely on websites and news clips in order to introduce these concepts into the classroom.” Another NSF program director, Jill Karsten, states, "The topic of climate change is not currently well-represented in national and state science education standards.” NSF launched the Climate Change Educational Partnership program (CCEP) in 2010 to develop materials and resources for educator (39).”



American Chemical Society (ACS) The ACS recommends that the United States should “Develop a national strategy to support climate change education and communication that both involves students, technical professionals, public servants and the general public, as well as being integrated with state and local initiatives. A national climate education act could serve as a catalyzing agent to reinvigorate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education across the nation. Such a strategy should include an integrated approach to sustainability education that connects science with social science, risk management, and economic issues. Such a policy must also include integrated support for informal science education (40).” American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) “Organizations that have studied climate-change education efforts—including AAAS, the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA, and others—have found that simply providing scientific data is not spurring the necessary public and political responses. To connect with audiences about the science of climate change and its wide-ranging human impacts, new approaches that draw from across the sciences—and the humanities—are necessary (41).” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) “NOAA Education’s goal of fostering an environmentally-literate public is an important component of achieving NOAA’s mission. NOAA defines an environmentally-literate person as someone who has a fundamental understanding of the systems of the natural world, the relationships and interactions between the living and nonliving environment, and has the ability to understand and utilize scientific evidence to make informed decisions regarding environmental issues. An educated public is needed to serve as stewards of the natural environment, take appropriate action in the case of severe weather, and participate in the national discussion about complex issues such as climate change (42) .” National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) “Environmental topics are particularly relevant to students’ everyday lives and should be presented within the context of scientific inquiry—to present science as the self-correcting, dynamic process that it is. Instruction should include critical review and analysis of information sources as well as relevant field and laboratory investigations. Specific topics should include: basic ecology, ecosystem loss and degradation, renewable and non-renewable resource use, human population dynamics, global climate change and the earth’s biodiversity (43).” The Geological Society of America “Public education is a critical element of a proactive response to the challenges presented by global climate change (44).”



National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT) “NAGT further recognizes that climate, climate systems and climate change are best taught in an interdisciplinary manner, integrating the many relevant sciences into a holistic curriculum approach; that climate-change topics provide exceptional opportunities for students to learn how geoscientists study past, present, and future climate systems, including the essential role of computer models in the assessment of global climate change scenarios; and that a current and comprehensive level of understanding of the science and teaching of climate change is essential to effective education (45).”

So, What Would Teaching Climate Science in Context Look Like? Let’s look at some examples from the NGSS and see what teaching climate science in context might look like. In each of the following classroom scenarios, we start with a reference to an NGSS statement and then provide an activity that addresses the statement.

In the Biology Classroom NGSS HS-LS2-7 Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.

Activity As the climate changes, the effect is not only on temperature but precipitation patterns, along with other natural patterns that will change the living conditions for many species. Many plant and animal species will be stressed by these changes. Applying the basic principles of natural selection enables students to see that some species will have an advantage over others and that natural selection will determine which species will survive and which will not. A prime example is seen in the arctic, where arctic circle lichen is being replaced by shrubs, affecting caribou, wolves, etc. In contrast to this, there are certain agricultural crops in the U.S. like soybeans, which scientists predict might improve with increased CO2 levels if precipitation patterns are adequate for growth. Many of these changes can be seen on the EPA website report on agriculture (46). A biology teacher could challenge his/her students to analyze the NASA graph and make a chart of potential “winners” and “losers” in the struggle for existence as climate change affects ecosystems worldwide (Figure 2) (47). Ask students to research why so many of the more sensitive areas are in the northern latitudes. Student teams could choose an ecosystem and report predicted effects from climate change (48).



Figure 2. Predicted percentage of ecological landscape being driven toward changes in plant species as a result of projected human induced climate change by 2100; Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Reproduced from Reference (47).

This is a wonderful application to real life and connects to the NGSS Disciplinary Core Idea (DCI) LS2.C “Ecosystems Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience – Anthropogenic changes (induced by human activity) in the environment – including habitat destruction, pollution, introduction of invasive species, overexploitation, and climate change – can disrupt an ecosystem and threaten the survival of some species (31).” In the Chemistry Classroom NGSS HS-PS1-6 Refine the design of a chemical system by specifying a change in conditions that would produce increased amounts of products at equilibrium.

Activity Instead of presenting an artificial chemical equilibrium problem set or a “cookbook” lab to high school chemistry students, why not challenge them to look at the ocean’s role as an absorber of CO2 and the subsequent acidification of the oceans (Figure 3), as a result of that shift of equilibrium since atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased (49)? Chemistry teachers could present the equilibrium equation depicted below in the NASA figure (Figure 4) (49). The 39 Peterman et al.; Climate Change Literacy and Education The Science and Perspectives from the Global Stage Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


teacher could then challenge the students to design an experiment to test the effects of increasing water temperature (effect of climate change) or a decrease in salinity (effects on oceans with continued polar ice cap melting) on pH changes in water systems. Students could also design a procedure of introducing CO2 into an aqueous solution—like capturing car exhaust using a funnel and a balloon (see my class doing this in a two-minute video on YouTube goo.gl/ogtSWy) and testing subsequent pH changes as the contents of the car exhaust balloon bubbles through a test solution. This will help students recognize the effect of carbon dioxide on the pH in aqueous solutions . The students could then be challenged to develop a system to test the shift in equilibrium by manipulating variables in their system (49).

Figure 3. Changes in CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere influencing CO2 concentrations in seawater resulting in decreased pH over time. Reproduced from Reference (49).

This is a perfect real-life scenario that depicts the Disciplinary Core Idea (DCI) PS1.B “In many situations, a dynamic and condition-dependent balance between a reaction and the reverse reaction determines the numbers of all types of molecules present (31).”



Figure 4. Ocean acidification chemical equation. Reproduced from Reference (49).

In the Physics Classroom NGSS HS-PS3-1 Create a computational model to calculate the change in the energy of one component in a system when the change in energy of the other component(s) and energy flows in and out of the system are known.

Activity Every physics or physical science teacher discusses conservation of energy and energy transfer. Why not use the radiative forcings data shown below from the IPCC 2013 Assessment Report to show the energy “ins” and the energy “outs” of the Earth system and how the math shows that more Watts/m2 are staying in our Earth’s atmosphere (Figure 5) (50)? Radiative forcing is a way of expressing the change in energy balance in our atmosphere as different gases trap the heat released after the earth absorbs solar radiation. Physical science teachers could easily devise some dimensional analysis problems from this data and focus on the different measurements of energy in a system. This fits in perfectly with the Disciplinary Core Idea (DCI) Definition of Energy: “Energy is a quantitative property of a system that depends on the motion and interactions of matter and radiation within that system (31).” (NGSS)



Figure 5. The Earth’s energy balance. Reproduced from Reference (50). In the Earth Science Classroom NGSS HS-ESS3-1 Construct an explanation on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity.

Activity Out of the 19 Performance Expectations of the NGSS for Earth and Space science, eight are foundationally based on climate science and sustainability of Earth’s resources, so there is a rich mining of resources for teachers in this field to elevate climate literacy for students in their classes. One example would be the data from NOAA and NASA concerning sea level rise due to climate change (Figure 6) (51). According to NASA, 11 out of the 15 most populated cities in the world are located on the coast or on estuaries, and approximately 53% of the population of the U.S. lives near the coast. NASA also has an excellent animation using satellite data depicting sea level rise from November 1997 to September 2015 (52). An earth science teacher could ask students to look at world maps and identify vulnerable population areas at or near sea level that would be impacted by sea level rise, and then compare the student predictions to the IPCC or NASA maps that show areas at risk for sea level rise. Earth science teachers could also look at recent hurricane data and storm surge information, and have students predict how 42 Peterman et al.; Climate Change Literacy and Education The Science and Perspectives from the Global Stage Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


the sea level rise would impact storm surge of future hurricanes. Earth science teachers focusing on water resources could also have students look at well water contamination with increased sea level rise and the impact of those people living at or near sea level.

Figure 6. Sea Level Rise since 1880. Reproduced from Reference (51).

Other examples of possible climate change units of study in an Earth science classroom include paleoclimate data of natural climate change scenarios of the history of the earth and what we have learned from them. Ice extent data from land and sea could also be included in a comparison between ancient climate conditions and those of today. The National Snow and Ice Data Center has some excellent resources, including monthly images and trends (53). The ocean “conveyor belt” currents and the potential temperature and salinity changes in the oceans due to climate change and the affect on global weather pattern producers is another topic of potential study connecting the study of earth science to climate change. Basic information for ocean circulation (thermohaline circulation) is available on the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research’s (UCAR) Center for Science Education website (54).


Conclusion In summary, what do U.S. science teachers need to elevate climate science literacy in our classrooms? Here is a list of “needs” to work toward Climate Science Literacy: •


• •

• •

Need to provide current teachers with professional development opportunities to elevate the teachers’ own climate science literacy. Because of budget constraints, many schools cannot afford teacher workshops; therefore, other funding sources, grants, and help from organizations are required. Need to include climate science courses in teacher training and preservice teacher education in our colleges and universities. Need to educate teachers about the social information filters and pressures we all have, which affect our perception of scientific data on climate change and other areas of science. Need to develop climate science materials for K-12 students and train teachers to use them. Need to stop thinking that students will get climate science education in a special course. Instead, need to teach climate science in context as a cross-curricular topic that students will learn about in all of their science and social science courses in grade-appropriate classroom activities.

Online Resources for Climate Change: Materials for the Classroom AAAS Publication “What We Know” is an excellent resource for both the classroom and anyone wishing to see a concise report on the science behind climate change. http://whatweknow.aaas.org/ National Climate Assessment: a team of more than 300 experts summarized the impacts of climate change on the U.S. now and in the future. It is reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences and is a rich resource of information. http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/ NOAA has a deeply resourced website on climate change with links to many other scientific websites. http://www.noaa.gov/climate NASA’s website has beautiful photographs and rich scientific evidence from satellite research and other sources. http://climate.nasa.gov/ NASA also has many resources specifically for teachers. https://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/index.html 44 Peterman et al.; Climate Change Literacy and Education The Science and Perspectives from the Global Stage Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

The National Center for Science Education is devoted to educators teaching about science. Its climate change resources are focused on helping teachers in this content area. https://ncse.com/climate


The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report on the Physical Basis for Climate Change is particularly rich with resources for teaching about climate change in the classroom. There is also an excellent video that sums up the scientific consensus. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/

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Climate Science Education â Hope for Our Future - ACS Publications

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Climate Science Education â Hope for Our Future - ACS Publications