TEACHING AND LEARNING ABOUT THE PHENOMENON OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

In the last decade data-based inquiries through models and simulation have become prominent in the teaching and learning about global climate change (GCC). Students observe and explain long-term trends in the Earth’s climate and analyze evidence supporting the phenomenon. However, comprehending carbon imbalances over vast spatial and temporal scales and the impacts of increased carbon dioxide remains challenging. In an attempt to investigate approaches for teaching and learning of GCC, we conducted a quasi-experimental study in ten secondary Geoscience classrooms in a partner school district in the context of a NSF supported project CliMES (Climate Literacy and Modeling Epistemology of Science). As a part of this project in collaboration with NASA-GISS, we have developed a three-week, NGSS aligned curriculum module grounded in EzGCM- a climate model (Forbes et al., 2015). Students investigate the concepts of anomaly, the changing rate of increase in average global temperatures, and the long-term record of atmospheric carbon dioxide to understand the phenomenon of global increase in average surface temperatures. In this presentation, we share this curriculum, learning outcomes on students reasoning about the phenomenon of increasing average surface temperatures and how this intervention helps students in effective decision making about global climate change. Students’ knowledge of climate data and their engagement with EzGCM were analyzed through quantitative and qualitative analysis of data obtained from concept inventory, student modeling tasks, and student interviews. Our results demonstrate that students were able to use EzGCM to obtain relevant data. Their meaningful engagement with EzGCM through comparing simulations representing stable and predicted Earth’s climate, enabled them to predict, hypothesize, and draw causal explanations about the phenomenon of average increase in global surface temperatures. K-12 climate literacy efforts are supported by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) and as states adapt to or revise their own standards, helping teaches in understanding how they can effectively teach about Earth's climate, in alignment with their state standards is becoming critical. This presentation offers information about conceptual frameworks for inquiry-based instruction in climate change aligned with NGSS and science and engineering practices.