UNDERSTANDING GLOBAL CHANGE: NEW WEB TOOLS FOR TEACHING ABOUT THE BIOTIC IMPACTS OF GLOBAL CHANGE

The University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), a leader in education on paleontology, deep time, and evolution, and the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), an organization devoted to defending the teaching of evolution and climate science in public schools, are raising awareness about global change through a new web resource called Understanding Global Change (UGC). The website will provide scientific content, vetted teaching and learning resources, and strategies for K-16 educators to effectively incorporate global change science into their existing curricula in ways that align with disciplinary core ideas and cross-cutting concepts from the Next Generation Science Standards. The site will help educators explore the varied ways in which Earth’s natural systems change and interact with one another over time, learn the science and evidence behind global change, and discover the many scientific disciplines bearing on past and current global change. Through this resource, we hope to foster good communication about the nature of global change and demonstrate the connections between drivers and impacts within a complex and societally relevant subject.

The UGC website is currently in development and will launch in spring 2015. Site content is guided by the UGC advisory boards (composed of leading experts in global change science and master science teachers from grades 6 to 12) along with UCMP’s and NCSE’s experienced science communicators and web designers. The disciplinary content and teaching resources on the site are vetted by our advisors for accuracy, efficacy, and clarity. During the summer of 2014, the UCMP previewed the site during an Understanding Global Change workshop for 25 educators. This early testing and educator feedback is guiding the site’s design, particularly with respect to online learning activities and teaching resources. During the year-long implementation phase of the website, a formal evaluation will assess the effectiveness of the project in improving teachers’ and students’ understanding of global change, as well as in increasing class time devoted to topics associated with global change.