ENABLING SCIENCE LITERACY: BRIDGING THE COMMUNICATION GAP BETWEEN THE SCIENTIFIC/TECHNICAL COMMUNITY AND THE PUBLIC AND EDUCATIONAL COMMUNITY
In recent years there have been efforts to bridge this gap in order to interest students pursuing STEM fields to ensure that there will be sufficient scientists, engineers, and technologists in the future to address the impacts of climate and environmental change. However, climate and environmental change will have much broader impacts than just in the STEM arena. Mitigation and adaptation to these changes will impact a wide range of fields including, but not limited to, the social sciences, psychology, economics, government policy (at all levels), and business. It is therefore necessary to extend the reach of this “bridging the communication gap” between the scientific/technical community and the public and educational community so that students and the public, no matter what their interests and field of work, become scientifically literate.
In this presentation a number of efforts to bridge this gap will be described. They include enabling the effective use of scientific data in educational contexts (AccessData http://serc.carleton.edu/usingdata/accessdata; Earth Exploration Toolbook http://serc.carleton.edu/eet); facilitating the sharing of information and leveraging activities across a wide range of individuals and disciplines (Climate Literacy Network http://cleanet.org/cln; CLEAN-New England http://cleanet.org/clean-ne); and enabling STEM college students, through a course that focused on climate change science, policy and communication, to reach out and inform high school students and the public about climate change issues.