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Extensive Climate Education resources are available through CLEAN and the Teach the Earth climate collection.

Teaching Climate Change Across the Disciplines

Republished From: Cooling the Curriculum; Author: Ashton Nichols

Initial Publication Date: April 29, 2016

Summary

Summary of the Session: Drawing on arguments put forth in Mike Hulme's book Why We Disagree About Climate Change, we will examine sources of disagreement about climate change causes, consequences, and solutions and consider how they can inform our teaching. The discussion will be facilitated to produce a matrix (or framework) for teaching about climate change.

Background: This 90-minute session is part of a four-day workshop that brought together faculty from multiple colleges and diverse disciplines to work collaboratively on developing new and revised courses, explore engaged learning pedagogies, and add to their knowledge for interdisciplinary teaching about climate change within a liberal arts curriculum. The workshop was held twice on the campus of Dickinson College, first in summer 2010 and again in summer 2011. Participants came from more than 20 colleges and universities and with expertise in disciplines that span the sciences, social sciences and humanities. The workshops are part of a NASA supported project Cooling the Liberal Arts Curriculum, A Campaign for Climate Change Education (https://www.dickinson.edu/info/20052/sustainability/2471/climate_education_and_research/4)

Also see Teaching Materials.


Learning Goals

1) Use Mike Hulme's Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction, and Opportunity as a starting point for a discussion about the teaching of climate change in a variety of undergraduate settings.

2) Move from small-group discussions of individual chapters in Hulme's book to a full-workshop discussion of the link between Hulme's thinking and a matrix (framework) for climate change pedagogy across the disciplines.

Context for Use

See attachment

Description and Teaching Materials

A summary of a faculty workshop session for teaching about climate change across disciplines with accompanying matrix that provides a general framework.

Teaching Climate Change Across Disciplines Teaching-climate-change-across-disciplines.pdf (Acrobat (PDF) 74kB Nov30 15)

Changing Planet Matrix Changing Planet Matrix (Acrobat (PDF) 48kB Nov30 15)



Teaching Notes and Tips

See attachment

Assessment

See attachment

References and Resources

Hulme, Mike. Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction, and Opportunity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Citation

Nichols, A. (2014). Teaching Climate Change Across the Disciplines. Retrieved from http://www.camelclimatechange.org/view/teachingunit/51cbfbbc7896bb431f6c045a