Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle: An Earth Systems Approach to Increasing Elementary Teachers' Understanding of Climate and Climate Change

Ohio State University, The, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

The goals of the Beyond Weather and Water Cycle project are to increase elementary teachers' understanding of climate and climate change, increase the amount and quality of science taught in elementary classrooms, and build a virtual professional learning community of practice. These goals will be accomplished by contextualizing and adapting existing developmentally-appropriate digital resources including differentiated, engaging informational texts; developing an online climate literacy course for elementary teachers; and utilizing Web 2.0 tools to provide interactive experiences and to facilitate virtual, collaborative professional development. Structured around the seven essential principles of climate literacy, instructional and professional resources will take elementary teachers and their students past the superficial understanding and teaching of weather and the water cycle to a solid understanding of climate. The project leverages the investment that NSF has made with the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears project and continues to make in the educational, social, and technical infrastructures of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) by using NSDL-funded projects (especially CLEAN - the NSDL Climate Literacy Pathway project), tools, systems, and partnerships as a means to multiply project impact. This project is creative in its integration of science and literacy and innovative, transformative, and Earth-friendly in its use of Web 2.0 tools to provide e-education opportunities and facilitate virtual, collaborative professional development.