ED23C-01 INVITED 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: A Science Communication Challenge

* Somerville, R C (rsomerville@ucsd.edu), Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego 9500 Gilman Drive, #0224, La Jolla, CA 92093-0224, United States

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), established in 1988, issued its Fourth Assessment Report in 2007. The IPCC has been influential in the debate over anthropogenic climate change. It has become the de facto voice of the mainstream scientific community, as the world seeks to understand the findings of climate science and their relevance to public policy. The primary purpose of the IPCC is to provide an authoritative assessment of results from climate science as an input to policymakers. Its mandate is to assess research, not to do research. Its reports are policy-relevant but not policy-prescriptive. The IPCC assessment reports are rightly regarded as the gold standard in climate science. They are well-suited for use as references for experts and textbooks for graduate students. However, as a source of information for the public, students and educators, the IPCC reports are far from optimal. They are written almost entirely by scientists. They tend to be long, detailed, technical, and full of jargon. In addition, the reports appear at intervals of about 5 years. Thus, the IPCC is not nimble and cannot respond quickly to new scientific developments. The IPCC is also not especially adept at communication, so its reports can be difficult to read and mysterious to non-specialists. As a result, the IPCC reports often need translation into plain language and interpretation for a wide variety of potential users. This presentation, by an IPCC Coordinating Lead Author, surveys a variety of recent and planned efforts to mine the IPCC reports as a rich source of scientific knowledge that should be made more accessible to the wider world. http://www.ipcc.ch

ED23C-02 INVITED 

What the American Public Really Thinks About Climate Change: New Evidence on Amelioration Strategies

* Krosnick, J A (krosnick@stanford.edu), Stanford University, 455 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, United States

On Capital Hill, a great deal of effort is being devoted to crafting legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in coming years. These legislative efforts are pursuing many different reduction strategies. But to date, the American public has not been asked to evaluate these various policies to weigh in on which they favor and which they oppose. Without such evidence, it may be difficult for policy-makers to prevent a situation where a piece of legislation passes in Congress but is later met by strong public resistance, as occurred twice on immigration recently, leading to the death of the bills. Professor Krosnick has been conducting surveys since 1995 exploring how Americans think about climate change and what policy solutions they prefer. This talk will present some of Professor Krosnick's most recent evidence. http://communication.stanford.edu/faculty/krosnick.html

ED23C-03 

Improving the climate literary of students, educators and the public - The Climate Literacy Initiative

* Dupigny-Giroux, L L (ldupigny@uvm.edu), University of Vermont, Department of Geography 200 Old Mill Building 94 University Place, Burlington, VT 05405-0114, United States

The Climate Literacy Initiative of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) was largely born out of the growing realization of the misconceptions held by university students about the atmosphere, weather, climate and increasingly, climate variability and change. One way to quantify students' perceptions and scientific understanding about a topic like global warming, was via the reflection rubric common to service-learning pedagogy. This revealed the dichotomy that students, and society in general, face between a research-style presentation of scientific results versus an opinion article that might appear in a local news outlet. These reflections also revealed the underlying gaps in student knowledge about basic atmospheric dynamics and the complexities of the linkages across the air-land-ocean interface. In order to address these knowledge gaps, climate pedagogy and resources are critical. A weather and climate needs assessment of some Vermont K-8 teachers revealed that their primary interests revolved around curriculum development and enhancement; experimental learning for their students; innovative activities using existing Internet-based resources and; professional development. This presentation will highlights the activities of the Climate Literacy Initiative, including its collaboration with the ESPERE group in Germany and the Climate Change Education Working group, sponsored by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program.

ED23C-04 

How do we create a climate literate society? A review of Climate Literacy essential principles and fundamental concepts that ensure climate literate citizens and students

* Niepold, F (frank.niepold@noaa.gov), NOAA Climate Program Office National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1315 East West Highway, SSMC III, Rm. 12727, Silver Spring, MD 20910, United States

Through a partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and AAAS Project 2061 we have collaborated to define climate literacy and develop weather and climate benchmarks for science literacy. The newly developed and revised national weather and climate science education standards were published in March of 2007 in the AAAS Project 2061 Atlas for Science Literacy volume II. This session will present the results of these projects as well as the publication of "An Abbreviated Guide for Teaching Climate Change." The Climate Literacy effort is working in parallel with the Ocean Literacy effort and has developed a Framework for Climate Literacy using the AAAS Project 2061 Atlas of Science. On April 10 - 12, 2007, AAAS and NOAA brought together 25 individuals for a workshop. They represented federal science agencies, formal and informal educators, non-governmental organizations, and other institutions involved with climate research, education, and outreach to build on the science education benchmarks. This effort resulted in a draft framework that will be used to engage the broad community to develop a robust conceptual framework that addresses the essential principles and fundamental concepts that climate literate citizens and students should know. That document has been reviewed and commented on during several rounds and will be available during the conference. http://www.climate.noaa.gov/education/

ED23C-05 

The Atmospheric Science and Climate Literacy Framework: An Opportunity to Build Community-Wide Consensus

* Johnson, R M (rmjohnsn@ucar.edu), University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80301, United States Snow, J T (jsnow@gcn.ou.edu), College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences, National Weather Center, The University of Oklahoma, 120 David L. Boren Blvd, NWC Suite 1100, Norman, OK 73072-7303, United States MacCaffrey, M S (Mark.Mccaffrey@Colorado.EDU), CIRES, University of Colorado at Boulder, Campus Box 449, Boulder, CO 80309, United States Foster, S Q (susanf@ucar.edu), University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80301, United States Buhr, S (susan.buhr@colorado.edu), CIRES, University of Colorado at Boulder, Campus Box 449, Boulder, CO 80309, United States Niepold, F (frank.niepold@noaa.gov), NOAA Climate Program Office National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1315 East West Highway, SSMC III, Rm. 12727, Silver Spring, MD 20910, United States

In late November, a workshop designed to further the development of a framework for atmospheric science and climate literacy was held in Boulder, Colorado, with the support of NSF and NOAA. The workshop brought together a diverse group of ~60 scientists, educators, and policy makers to identify key concepts essential for atmospheric science and climate literacy for the public and students, as well as linkages among weather, climate, and ocean literacy. The group worked together to refine a draft framework, building on an array of foundational documents, and the organizing committee is now working to make that framework available for comment and further review online by the broader scientific and educational community. We ask interested scientists and educators to suggest revisions and feed back on this document during the comment period, so that your perspectives can be taken into account in the final consensus document, which we plan to complete and deliver to sponsors by the end of July 2008. http://www.eo.ucar.edu/literacy_workshop.html

ED23C-06 

Teaching about climate change: lessons from evolution education

* Wise, S B (sarah.wise@colorado.edu), Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), Campus Box 449 U. of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309,

Climate change and evolution share the dubious distinction of being widely accepted by scientists, but hotly debated by the public. They are also marked by communication pitfalls, belief-based misconceptions, the influence of denial machines, and the risk of educator embroilment in controversy. Evolution educators have developed a number of successful strategies for overcoming these challenges, which may prove useful for climate change educators. The session will conclude with a discussion of teacher professional development opportunities which address the challenges presented by publically controversial science topics. http://cires.colorado.edu/education/k12/

ED23C-07 

How Much of the Science of Climate Change Does the Public Really Understand? Evaluation of University Students' Ideas on the Carbon Cycle

* Madsen, J (jmadsen@udel.edu), Department of Geological Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, United States Gerhman, E (gehrman@udel.edu), Department of Geological Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, United States Ford, D (djford@udel.edu), School of Education, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, United States

To be able to effectively bring the science of climate change to educational audiences, it is important to have an understanding of the learners' prior knowledge of the scientific topics involved in the study of climate change. We have evaluated the prior knowledge of the carbon cycle and how human activities affect this cycle using a cohort of university-level students, primarily freshman and sophomore elementary education majors. The movement of carbon through the earth's atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere is a fundamental biogeochemical cycle that influences earth's climate. As a pre-assessment of content knowledge, approximately 170 students enrolled in an introductory-level earth science course were asked to describe what a standard diagram illustrating the carbon cycle shows about how carbon cycles on earth and how energy is involved in this cycle. They were then asked to describe how human activities might affect the carbon cycle. This pre-assessment, assigned and submitted as an on-line activity, was given during the middle portion of the semester before topics directly pertaining to climate change were addressed in the course. These prior knowledge assessments were collected as part of an integrated research project funded by the National Science Foundation designed to study how teachers' science content and pedagogical knowledge develops as they move from university student to practicing K-8 teacher. The initial evaluation of the pre-assessments focused on the identification of alternative conceptions of the carbon cycle and of how human activities affected the cycle. These alternative conceptions were grouped into broad categories. The results show a remarkable lack of understanding of the some of the basic components of the carbon cycle and of how humans may affect this cycle. For example, there was a general lack of understanding of how carbon moves between reservoirs. A popular alternative conception was that carbon, like water, is involved in processes of evaporation, associated with clouds, and falls as precipitation back to the oceans or land. In terms of how human activities might affect the carbon cycle, the most common alternative conception was that human activity is causing pollution and that pollution would disturb the carbon cycle. In only a few cases was the type of pollution or how the pollution would actually disturb the cycle defined. These results demonstrate the crucial need to continue to educate the public about even the most basic concepts underlying the science of climate change and, when engaged in these educational activities, to be aware of the level of prior knowledge of the audiences so as to maximize their learning experience.

ED23C-08 

Students as Mentors and Owners of Geoscience and Environmental Education: Advancing the Science of Climate Change in the Public Schools

* Schuster, D A (daschust@iupui.edu), Indiana University School of Education @ IUPUI, 902 West New York Street, Indianapolis, IN 46022, United States Thomas, C W (chwthoma@iupui.edu), IUPUI Department of Earth Sciences, 723 West Michigan Street, Indianapolis, IN 46022, United States Smith, J S (jss2@iupui.edu), Indiana University School of Education @ IUPUI, 902 West New York Street, Indianapolis, IN 46022, United States Wood, E J (eljwood@iupui.edu), Indiana University School of Education @ IUPUI, 902 West New York Street, Indianapolis, IN 46022, United States Filippelli, G M (gfilippe@iupui.edu), IUPUI Department of Earth Sciences, 723 West Michigan Street, Indianapolis, IN 46022, United States

The importance of K-12 educational programs and resources that seek to share the science of climate change has recently come into focus. During the fall 2006 AGU meeting, we presented the conceptual framework used to guide both the curriculum and year-one programs of Students as Mentors and Owners of Geoscience and Environmental Education: The Global Warming Road Show. Currently this dynamic, three-phase, tiered mentoring program selects and empowers a diverse population of 11th and 12th grade students from a large urban high school in the Midwest to teach a curriculum on climate change to 7th graders from a local feeder school. In December 2007 we will complete year-one of the program and will present an overview of 1) students' conceptual representations of climate change, 2) the most recent curriculum and programs, and 3) the ongoing program evaluation. We will synthesize these three areas and reflect on how to improve upon year-two of both the curriculum and the program. During various stages of the program, students have constructed concept maps, written in journals, created lesson plans, and participated in focus group interviews. These materials are being analyzed to provide a brief overview of high school students' initial conceptualizations of climate change. During the intensive 2007 summer workshop, these 11th and 12th grade students were supported by university scientists and science educators, secondary science teachers, and museum educators as they attempted to better understand climate change and as they reflected on how to effectively teach this topic to 7th graders. During the fall semester of 2007, the workshop graduates are scheduled to teach 25 to 30 7th graders a five week climate unit. The program will culminate with the 11th and 12th grade student-mentors working with the 7th graders to create a "Road Show," which will be presented to other 7th and 8th graders within the same school district. To ensure that this program is current, a team of scientists and science educators supplemented and further developed a well known and tested 15-year-old curriculum (Great Explorations in Math and Science, 1990) with recent data and analysis focusing on key concepts of climate change. The updated curriculum was structured using two driving questions: - How do we know the earth has experienced climate change in the past, including the ice ages and the age of the dinosaurs? - How do we know that humans have an impact on climate? Science educators and scientists also worked together to create templates that prompted the 11th and 12th grade students to first reflect on their understandings of climate change and then on how they would teach their younger peers. As students work with experiments, data sets, and news-media articles, they are also prompted to reflect on discrepancies between primary science sources and secondary media sources (Drake and Nelson, 2005). An evaluation team observed the summer workshops, administered surveys, reviewed the adapted curriculum, and participated in planning sessions. The evaluators are in the process of analyzing these multiple indicators to examine the extent to which the program aligns with its stated goals. The initial formative evaluation findings suggest that students were active participants in the workshop and that they enjoyed their experience. Areas of year-two development include improved communication and collaboration between university and secondary school units.

Author(s) (2007), Title, Eos Trans. AGU, 88(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract #####-##.