EDGCM: REAL-TIME GLOBAL CLIMATE MODELING RESEARCH FOR THE CLASSROOM

Global climate change impacts everything from the environment to the economy and all science teachers and students should have at least a basic knowledge of the Earth’s climate system. In addition, teachers should be able to help students explore the methods that scientists and policy makers rely on to forecast climate changes. By doing this we can educate our future citizenry in a topic that will surely effect their lives and we can prepare the next generation of scientists who will be asked to deal with a myriad of complex climate issues.

The computer models known as global climate models (GCMs) are a primary tool used in climate research. Unfortunately, few educators have access to GCMs, which require supercomputers to run. The lack of familiarity with the tools and concepts for studying climate breeds a distrust of important scientific findngs and graduate geoscience programs end up teaching fundamental techniques at a stage when students could already be participating in research. Our goal is to promote broader access to GCMs and to provide the technology and materials to help teachers use them.

To address this need we have created a global climate model that runs on desktop computers. Developed at NASA, the GCM is used by scientists to study climates of the past, present and future. To operate the GCM in the classroom we have added a user-friendly interface that simplifies management of simulations. Experiments are automatically archived in a searchable database and we developed easy-to-use utilities for analyzing results via the web (plotting, mapping, etc). Finally, the software permits teachers to add instructional materials (text, charts, images) and export research reports to the web. We call the package EdGCM.

EdGCM permits teachers and students to explore the fundamentals of climate science using tools identical to those used in major climate research programs. A wide range of simple climate experiments are possible (How does the sun warm the planet?). But, it is also possible to conduct in-depth investigations of current events in near real-time, as they are being studied by climate scientists. EdGCM comes with some pre-prepared scenarios for investigating a variety of interesting climate issues (global warming, ice ages), but teachers can easily construct their own scenarios to fit the needs of specific lesson-plans.