UNDERSTANDING GLOBAL CHANGE: FRAMEWORKS AND SYSTEM MODELS FOR TEACHING, LEARNING, AND COMMUNICATING CLIMATE CHANGE

Teaching and learning about climate and global change requires an understanding of the physical, chemical, and biological processes within the Earth system. The Understanding Global Change (UGC) Project at the University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) at UC Berkeley is developing the mechanisms and tools for delivering coherent, interdisciplinary climate and global change content to diverse K-16 and public audiences. These resources, which will be disseminated through our website and through professional development programs across the country, include:

1) The UGC framework, which organizes historical and anthropogenic global change topics into three categories: (1) causes of change, both human and non-human (e.g., burning of fossil fuels, Earth’s tilt and orbit), (2) Earth system processes that shape the way the Earth works (e.g., Earth’s energy budget, water cycle), and (3) the measurable changes in the Earth system (e.g., temperature, ocean acidification).

2) Visual Earth system storyboard models and written descriptions of how each framework topic is conceptually linked to other components of the framework, which support the teaching and learning about the Earth as a dynamic, interacting system. Using these models, scientists can communicate how their own work fits into the system model and informs our understanding of changes in the Earth system.

3) The Systems Planning Guide, a template to support the development of learning progressions through the critical selection and integration of instructional resources into curricula.

We are establishing a diverse community of scientists and educators across the country that is using these tools in an effort to create local networks supported by UGC staff and partners. Pilot projects are using system models in secondary school classrooms to teach about sea level rise, and guiding teachers in the development of instructional units that embed resources and discussions about climate and global change throughout physics, chemistry, and biology curricula. Additionally, we are partnering with informal and citizen science projects to determine how the framework and models support understanding the context for authentic data and research.