Transcript Climate Change Science in the K

Climate Change Science in the K12 Classroom: Does it Fit?
Jacque Ewing-Taylor
Nevada EPSCoR Annual Meeting
Lase Vegas, February 13, 2012
Current Program Issues
• Target middle school teachers
• More interest from HS; some elementary
• Difficulty working CC lesson plans into classes
The Current Standards
• Atmospheric Processes and the Water Cycle
(Earth and Space Science Unifying Concept A)
– Earth systems have internal and external sources
of energy, both of which create heat. Driven by
sunlight and Earth's internal heat, a variety of
cycles connect and continually circulate energy
and material through the components of the earth
systems.
The New Science Standards Framework
• limited number of elements in three dimensions:
(1) scientific and engineering practices, (2)
crosscutting concepts, and (3) disciplinary core
ideas in science
• describes how they should be developed across
grades K-12
• designed so students continually build on and
revise knowledge and abilities throughout school
• all three dimensions need to be integrated into
standards, curricula, instruction, and assessment
Life Science
Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and
Resilience
What happens to ecosystems when the
environment changes?
“…many changes are induced by human activity, such
as resource extraction, adverse land use patterns,
pollution, introduction of nonnative species, and global
climate change.”
By The End of Grade 2:
The places where plants and animals live
often change, sometimes slowly and sometimes
rapidly. When animals and plants get too hot or
too cold, they may die. If they can’t find enough
food, water, or air, they may die.
By The End of Grade 5:
When the environment changes in ways
that affect a place’s physical characteristics,
temperature, or availability of resources, some
organisms survive and reproduce, others move
to new locations, yet others move into the
transformed environment, and some die.
By The End of Grade 8:
Ecosystems are dynamic in nature; their
characteristics can vary over time. Disruptions to
any physical or biological component of an
ecosystem can lead to shifts in all its
populations. Biodiversity describes the variety of
species found in Earth’s terrestrial and oceanic
ecosystems. The completeness or integrity of an
ecosystem’s biodiversity is often used as a
measure of its health.
By The End of Grade 12:
A complex set of interactions within an ecosystem can keep
its numbers and types of organisms relatively constant over long
periods of time under stable conditions. If a modest biological or
physical disturbance to an ecosystem occurs, it may return to its
more-or-less original status (i.e., the ecosystem is resilient), as
opposed to becoming a very different ecosystem. Extreme
fluctuations in conditions or the size of any population, however,
can challenge the functioning of ecosystems in terms of resources
and habitat availability. Moreover, anthropogenic changes (induced
by human activity) in the environment—including habitat
destruction, pollution, introduction of invasive species,
overexploitation, and climate change—can disrupt an ecosystem
and threaten the survival of some species.
Implications for EPSCoR Education Programs
• Easier to incorporate CC science into
classrooms at ALL levels
• Increased emphasis on K-8
• Increased emphasis on science process:
claims, evidence, reasoning
Questions?