Development and sustainability of NSF-funded climate change education efforts: lessons learned and strategies used to develop the Reconstructing Earth's Climate History (REaCH) curriculum (Invited)
Abstract
The context for understanding modern global climate change lies in the records of Earth's past. This is demonstrated by decades of paleoclimate research by scientists in organizations such as IODP and ANDRILL, yet making that science accessible to educators has been a long-standing challenge. Furthermore, content transfer is not enough; in science education, addressing how we know is as important as addressing what we know about science. To that end, our initial NSF-CCLI/TUES objective of Teaching Anchor Concepts of Climate Change (NSF #0737335) was to put authentic data and published case studies of past climate change at students' fingertips in a series of 7 multipart inquiry-based exercise modules for undergraduate classroom and lab use. After 4 years of funding (incl. 2 no-cost extensions) we surpassed our project objective and established an avenue for sustainability that is proving successful. The purpose of this presentation is to share (1) the process by which we developed the curriculum and (2) the strategies used to ensure sustainability. The curriculum development process reflected many of the same successful strategies used in scientific research. It drew on the knowledge and skills of the team; it was collaborative, iterative, and primarily distributive, yet at times directive. The team included paleoclimate researchers and educators from a broad range of undergraduate institutions. We evaluated published data from scientific reports and peer-reviewed journal articles, and used these as the foundation for writing curriculum that was data-rich and inquiry-based. In total 14 multipart exercise modules were developed. The feedback from early and frequent meeting presentations, from formative evaluation by students in courses and by faculty in workshops, and from peer-review by paleoclimate scientists and undergraduate educators helped us fine-tune the materials to the needs of the education and paleoclimate science communities. It additionally helped us develop detailed instructor guides to accompany each module. After careful consideration of dissemination options, we choose to publish the full suite of exercise modules as a commercially-available book, Reconstructing Earth's Climate History, while also providing open online access to a subset of modules. Its current use in undergraduate paleoclimatology courses, and the availability of select modules for use in other courses demonstrate that creative, hybrid options can be found for lasting dissemination, and thus sustainability. In achieving our goal of making science accessible, we believe we have followed a curriculum development process and sustainability path that can be used by others to meet needs in earth, ocean, and atmospheric science education. Next steps for REaCH include exploration of its use in blended learning classrooms, and at minority serving institutions.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUFMED23E..02S
- Keywords:
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- 0820 EDUCATION Curriculum and laboratory design;
- 0825 EDUCATION Teaching methods;
- 0810 EDUCATION Post-secondary education