ED24A-01
Capacity Building in the IAI Collaborative Research Network Program- Experience from CRN03
In addition to their scientific agendas, IAI CRNs have the explicit goal of capacity building in Global Change science. CRN03 examined climate variability in the Americas with particular emphasis on tree-rings, involving collaboration between 3 US, 2 Canadian plus Argentinean and Chilean laboratories. New pioneer laboratories were also established in Mexico, Bolivia and Peru. With limited funding we believed that capacity building is best achieved by involving students and junior researchers in project work directly (about 100 in total) but we also undertook educational activities that augment this role. The most visible was the initiation of dendroecological fieldweeks in Latin America. These brought together 20-30 international students and junior researchers from many disciplines to work in small research teams led by experienced scientists. Over a 7-10 day period projects go from conception via field sampling and measurement to final presentations (and sometimes publication). Major fieldweeks (the first in Latin America) were organized in Argentina (2000), Mexico (2001) Chile (2003) and Brazil (2005) with smaller groups in Chile (2000), Bolivia (2001) and Canada (2002). Over 100 students attended (mainly funded by the CRN) from11 Latin American and Caribbean countries and instructors from 6 countries. These field weeks develop important national and international contacts for participants and also provided promotional material (including a 20 minute bilingual video) for further recruiting. Several students were also supported for travel to short courses in the USA or elsewhere. Given the distances involved, most research collaborations were bilateral between individuals or institutions, the strongest ones generally involving a senior laboratory or scientists with junior partners elsewhere. This has particularly enhanced international collaboration for the established Latin American laboratories by attracting researchers from regions not previously involved in tree-ring research. In all cases there has also been an increase in "within-country" collaboration for individual laboratories as their expertise has been recognized and they have provided training, dating and consultations for other projects.
ED24A-02
IAI Training in Climate and Health in the Americas
The Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) has addressed training in climate and health in the
Americas in two major ways. First, IAI supports students to engage in research training. A multi-country health
activity funded by IAI was the collaborative research network (CRN) on Diagnostics and Prediction of Human
Health Impacts in the Tropical Americas, which focused principally on the effect of El Nino/Southern Oscillation
and other aspects of climate variability on mosquito-borne diseases malaria and dengue. The CRN involved
students in Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Jamaica. The CRN was also linked to other climate and
health projects that used a similar approach. Second, IAI organizes training institutes to expand the network of
global change research scientists and facilitate the transfer of global change research into practice. The IAI
Training Institute on Climate and Health in the Americas was held on November 7 - 18, 2005 at the University of
the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, engaging participants from the CRN and other programs in the Americas.
The Training Institute's central objective was to help strengthen local and regional capacity to address the
impacts of climate variability and climate change on human health in the populations of the Americas, particularly
Latin America and the Caribbean. The Training Institute had three core components: Science; Applications; and
Proposal Development for Seed Grants. Recommendations for future Training Institutes included incorporating
new technologies and communicating with policy-makers to develop more proactive societal strategies to
manage risks.
http:www.iai.int
ED24A-03
IAI Global Change Agenda and Support of Higher Education in the Andean Amazon Countries.
The Andean Amazon River Analysis and Management project, an IAI Collaborative Research Network operating during 1999-2004, examined the impacts of climate and land-use changes on the hydrobiogeochemistry of rivers draining the Amazon Andes of Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Bolivia. The project also provided a means to strengthen scientific collaboration among these Andean countries and the USA. Research in these countries was carried out under the guidance of investigators with backgrounds in the relevant environmental fields, but the bulk of the research activities were carried out by undergraduate and graduate students who studied within these countries and overseas. Twenty graduate students and 15 undergraduates completed studies within the project, in topics related to monitoring hydrometeorological variables both in time and space. Student research and capacity building were focused in areas central to global environmental change, including modeling of precipitation and precipitation-runoff processes, basin-scale water quality characterization and biogeochemical cycling, and socioeconomic controls on the use and management of riverine resources. The analysis of human dimension aspects of climate change research was also featured, especially those aspects that linked the consequences of water quality degradation on human health. Most of undergraduate and graduate students that collaborated in the AARAM project have joined national environmental institutions and some have continued for higher scientific degrees in fields closely related to the IAI scientific agenda. Through this IAI initiative, the number of trained global change scientists in the Andean countries has grown and there is enhanced awareness of key global change science issues among the scientific community.
ED24A-04
Global Change science in Latin America: How can we get more scientists doing it at home?
The need for a stronger research community in Latin America (LA) is increasingly acknowledged by most
countries in the region. Tools to cope with natural and social shifts as well as novel scientific knowledge of
international value are being demanded. What are the main challenges and opportunities to feel these needs?
Although funding is traditionally pointed out as the main barrier for (global change) science development in LA,
we propose that some aspects of the prevailing scientific culture are also of fundamental importance. We define
them as a) "inferiority complex", yielding low expectation on the potential impact of LA science at the international
level, pushing researchers seeking success to look for it outside LA, and making many home-based researchers
to create a self-defensive attitude against returning colleagues; b) "disciplinary and hierarchical focus" shaping
national agencies, universities, and scientific unions along structured traditional fields that make the acceptance
and development of cross-cutting Earth System science difficult; and c) "academic isolation", stemming from a
mutual distrust between scientist and policy makers. The often overlooked opportunities of global change
science in LA include d) a "complementary perspective" on global change issues in LA among southern and
northern researchers, derived from their different cultural context, e) a "complementary global change laboratory"
in LA hosting a dynamic and often unique set of land use changes; f) "highly efficient research systems" capable
of training student and publish paper at very low costs. We argue that creative capacity building programs should
tackle a-b-c and take advantage of d-e-f by propitiating teams that develop effective North-South and regional links
to train new young scientist doing global change research in their own countries. In addition, capacity building in
the continent needs to go beyond formal training and deal with the process of young scientist insertion at home.
Financial support programs that foster their international connection and their start-up process have already
demonstrated a strong potential to overcome the scientific constrains of the region.
http:gea.unsl.edu.ar
ED24A-05
Building Inter-hemispheric Climate and Global Change Education Programs for Students, Teachers, and the Public
The National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder Colorado is a leading research institution in the area of global and climate change research worldwide. As a component of NCAR's mission in research, education, and service, NCAR supports numerous programs designed to bring this science to different audiences in order to promote better understanding of climate and global change research as well as its relevance in learning contexts. Our climate and global change education and outreach effort targets several audiences, including online and in-person professional development for middle and high school educators, exhibits, tours, websites, and development of educational resources on climate and global change topics. The design of our program intentionally leverages resources in support of multiple audiences (including Spanish-speakers) in different settings. Beginning in 2006, building on relationships developed through the Megacity Initiative: Local and Global Research Observations (MILAGRO) campaign, we began to expand our collaborations with scientists and educators in Latin America, including Mexico and Chile.
ED24A-06
A Perspective on Climate Change Education and Directions Forward
With the current debate on global warming shifting from science questions linking humans and rising temperatures towards more policy focused questions of how to best mitigate against future warming, it's unclear if the public is adequately educated to enable informed decision-making. The results from a series of surveys given to primarily non-science undergraduates from diverse backgrounds indicate that a majority of these students harbor significant misconceptions about the basic science related to global warming, and the relationship between global warming and personal energy use. Our study supports the notion that effective climate change education should emphasize the connection with personal consumption, so that as students matriculate, they gain awareness of the impacts of their energy use in multiple aspects of their lives. This interdisciplinary project seeks to develop and assess various educational tools for teaching climate change and to evaluate these approaches over a period of years.