Paper No. 4
Presentation Time: 2:15 PM
CLIMATE LITERACY AND ENERGY AWARENESS NETWORK (CLEAN): A RIGOROUS PEER-REVIEW PROCESS FOR BUILDING A NEW COLLECTION OF HIGH-QUALITY DIGITAL TEACHING MATERIALS ON CLIMATE AND ENERGY SCIENCE
GOLD, Anne U., Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, CO, Boulder, CO 80309, LEDLEY, Tamara Shapiro, Center for STEM Teaching and Learning / CLEAN Network, TERC, 2067 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02140, MCCAFFREY, Mark S., Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Univ of Colorado, Campus Box 216, Boulder, CO 80309-0216, BUHR, Susan M., Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Univ of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0216, MANDUCA, Cathryn A., Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College, 1 North College Street, Northfield, MN 55057, NIEPOLD, Frank, NOAA Climate Program Office, Silver Spring, 20910, FOX, Sean P., Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College, Northfield, MN 55057, HOWELL, Cynthia, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois Street, Golden, CO 80401 and LYNDS, Susan, CIRES Education & Outreach Program, University of Colorado at Boulder, 449 UCB - 30th Street, University of Colorado, Boulder, 80309-0449, anne.u.gold@colorado.edu
To provide students with accurate information about climate and energy science, educators require scientifically and pedagogically robust teaching materials. To address this need, the Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) has assembled a new peer-reviewed digital collection as part of the National Science Digital Library featuring teaching materials centered on climate and energy science for grades 6 through 16. The scope and framework of the collection is defined by the Essential Principles of Climate Science (CCSP 2009) and newly-developed Energy Awareness Principles. The collection will provide authoritative teaching materials on these socially relevant topics and prepare students to become responsible decision-makers.
While a peer-review process is desirable for curriculum developer as well as collection builder to ensure quality, its implementation is non-trivial. We have designed a rigorous and transparent peer-review process for the CLEAN collection. Our experiences provide general guidelines that can be used to judge the quality of digital teaching materials across disciplines.
Our multi-stage review process ensures that only resources with teaching goals relevant to developing climate literacy and energy awareness are considered. Each relevant resource is reviewed twice to assess the i) scientific accuracy, ii) pedagogic effectiveness, and iii) usability/technical quality. A science review by an expert ensures the scientific quality and accuracy. Resources that pass all review steps are forwarded to a review panel of educators and scientists who make a final decision regarding inclusion of the materials in the CLEAN collection. Results from the first panel review show that about 20% (~100) of the resources that were initially considered passed final review. Reviewer comments are recorded as teaching tips to enhance existing teaching resources and help educators with the implementation in their curriculum.
CLEAN will launch the first collection of digital educational resources about climate science and energy awareness in October 2010. The final CLEAN collection will include ≥500 resources and will also provide the alignment with the Benchmarks for Science Literacy and the Excellence in Environmental Education Guidelines for Learning through interactive strandmaps.
