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Jun. 12, 2009
Online Course Will Help Teachers Introduce Climate Change To Middle, High School Classrooms

May 26, 2009
CIRES Researchers Recognized For Role In Historic Colorado River Shortage Agreement

May 19, 2009
Professor Mark Serreze Named National Snow and Ice Data Center Director

May 14, 2009
Melting Threat From West Antarctic Ice Sheet Less Than Expected But Could Hit U.S. Hardest, Study Says

Apr. 8, 2009
Ice Bridge Supporting Wilkins Ice Shelf Collapses

Apr. 6, 2009
New Satellite Data Show Arctic Literally On Thin Ice

Mar. 18, 2009
New Literacy Guide Provides Quick Notes On Climate System

Mar. 16, 2009
CIRES Fellow Margaret Tolbert To Receive American Chemical Society Award

Mar. 11, 2009
CIRES Fellow Rainer Volkamer Wins NSF CAREER Award

Mar. 3, 2009
CIRES Fellow Solomon Inducted Into Women's Hall Of Fame

Online Course Will Help Teachers Introduce Climate Change To Middle, High School Classrooms

Jun. 12, 2009

Colorado middle and high school teachers will be able to clear up global warming misconceptions and develop effective climate science curricula for their classrooms through a new online course offered by the University of Colorado at Boulder.

"Climate Literacy: Essential Principles for Teachers" will cover scientific basics about Earth’s climate, address key misconceptions about the climate system, and help teachers develop climate-based lesson plans. The Division of Continuing Education class will run July 6-28. Its online format will allow teachers to participate from anywhere in the country.

"Because climate science is inherently interdisciplinary, it can fall through the cracks in traditional science education. Students sometimes graduate from high school or even college without learning climate basics. Climate literacy is aimed at helping address these gaps," said Mark McCaffrey, with the university’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES.

A specialist in climate communications, and a co-founder of the Climate Literacy Network, McCaffrey will co-instruct the course with Dr. Sarah Wise. Both McCaffrey and Wise work in the CIRES Education and Outreach group headed by Dr. Susan Buhr. The group was recently awarded a $750,000 grant from NASA to develop a model teacher professional development program, entitled "Inspiring Climate Education Excellence (ICEE)," that will help teachers align climate science with their state educational standards.

"The goal of the online climate literacy course is to help teachers build confidence in their knowledge of climate science, and help them find a place for climate science within their curricula," said Wise.

Both public and private school teachers in Colorado are eligible for an 80 percent tuition scholarship, offered through CU-Boulder’s Division of Continuing Education. All teachers will earn one Graduate Research and Teaching Education credit upon course completion.

During the course, participants will be expected to work through four of the essential principles of climate literacy each week and develop a climate-based lesson plan as a final project.

For more information on the CU-Boulder climate literacy course: http://conted.colorado.edu/climateliteracy.
For more general information on climate literacy: http://www.climateliteracynow.org.