Initial Publication Date: June 19, 2015

Registration Details


This half-day workshop is part of the GSA Short Course 4-Pack. For $35, select any two workshops from the four. Early registration ends on September 6. To sign up for a workshop, use the GSA meeting registration.

519B. Teaching Climate Science with Active Learning Strategies

cosponsored by NAGT and the Geoscience Education Division of GSA

October 8, 2011 - 8:00 am to 12:00 pm
Part of the GSA Short Course 4-Pack

Conveners: Karin Kirk, Science Education Resource Center and Susan Buhr, CIRES

Workshop description

Climate science is a hot topic in today's classrooms, but understanding the science can be clouded by misconceptions, affective roadblocks, and political concerns. One important strategy for improving student understanding of controversial or misunderstood topics is to use active learning methods by which students can become immersed in the issue. This half-day workshop will provide opportunities to learn specific techniques for teaching climate science, such as using datasets, Google Earth, case studies, and interactive classroom projects. Participants will have hands-on time using various tactics and will emerge with a set of resources that they can apply to their own classrooms.

Workshop Program

8:00 Workshop begins

8:00 - 9:00 Setting the stage for active learning (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 1.1MB Oct26 11)
Where does knowledge come from? Prior knowledge probe warmup activity
Why use active learning strategies?
9:00 - 11:10 - Demonstrations of active learning
Participants will break into 5 groups of ~6 people per group. Each group will do one demo for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, the groups rotate. Each group will visit every demo and will see 5 different activities that use active learning.
Teaching Climate Change with Google Earth, Northwest Passage - presented by Glenn Richard
Isotope Fractionation using M&Ms (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 159kB Oct26 11) - presented by Kelly MacGregor
Unexpected Impacts of Sea Level Rise in South Florida (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 2.6MB Oct10 11) - presented by Jeff Ryan
  • activity (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 17kB Oct10 11) and kml file (KMLFile 56kB Oct10 11)
Climate Around the World - presented by John McDaris
Stabilization Wedges Game - presented by Susan Buhr
Carbon Dioxide Exercise - presented by Karin Kirk
9:10 - 9:30 - Round 1 Demos
9:35 - 9:55 - Round 2 Demos
10:00 - 10:20 - Round 3 Demos
10:25 - 10:45 - Round 4 Demos
10:50 - 11:10 - Round 5 Demos

11:15 - 11:45 - Debrief
Muddiest points and guiding questions,
What do you need to implement these activities, next steps
How to find more activities and resources,
Upcoming events from CLEAN, ICEE NAGT, Cutting Edge.
11:45 - 12:00 - Evaluation

12:00 Workshop concludes

12:00 - 1:00 Lunch with other workshop groups (lunch is included with the workshop fee)

1:00 - 5:00 Afternoon workshops