Teachers Accessing and Utilizing Paleoclimate Data to Facilitate Inquiry in the Classroom

A new way of teaching climate science introduces users to the idea of utilizing models as scientific tools. Although there is an abundance of climate model output available on the World Wide Web to both teachers and students, few of the interfaces are designed specifically for this audience. One of the main objectives of this research project is to develop a user-friendly interface that will provide teachers with a discipline-oriented approach to inquiry problem-solving through selecting and analyzing relevant paleoclimate model output data. The intent of the interface is to offer prospects for considering how climate forcing factors have contributed to Earth's climate and ecology of the past, present, and future. Users have some control over the timeframe (e.g., modern or Eocene), type of dataset to explore (e.g., temperature, precipitation, and cloud cover), and method of graphical representation. Brief descriptions aimed at stimulating the generation of questions within several science disciplines (e.g., biology, chemistry, meteorology, to name a few) are provided to assist the facilitation of open-ended inquiry. A few samples of guided-inquiry investigations using climate model output are also provided to teachers for use in their classrooms. The interface is incorporated into a prototype learning module that provides experiential opportunities for understanding how climate models work and how they are used in scientific research today.