By Nancy Colleton, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies

Icebergs made in paper cups, aquariums, satellite data, bio-engineered grass seeds, and a diagram of the food chain of the white-footed mouse are just a few of the interesting items contained in a series of learning activities promoting the understanding of climate change and its potential regional impacts.

Created by a diverse group of educators, classroom teachers, education technologists, Earth scientists, and teacher trainers, the learning activities focus on sectoral topics consistent with the National Assessment and are targeted to grade levels K-4, 5-8, and 9-12. The activities were developed independently by design team members and presented for review at a January workshop.

The design team members were asked to create an activity to fit a forty-minute or series of forty-minute class periods, ensure that the activity responds to national education standards, identify existing related materials for more information or research, and develop student assessment indicators.

Eric Barron, director of the EMS Environment Institute at Pennsylvania State University, developed an overview activity reviewing five key elements of an Earth systems approach: 1) a sense of balance; 2) an understanding of feedbacks; 3) the role of life in promoting stability; 4) a sense of change and a sense of time; and 5) the natural-human environment interaction. "The most important thing we can teach our students is that the Earth is a system, and then to consider what happens if we kick that system? That's why we're doing an assessment--to better understand the what if scenarios," states Barron.

Julia Berry, an elementary school science teacher from St. Patrick Episcopal Day School in Washington, DC, created three activities that enable K-4 teachers to introduce their students to the use of simple scientific tools such as thermometers and rulers in order to: 1) observe and describe changes within ecosystem models; 2) explain the relationship between the model and the real world; 3) measure and record changes; and 4) make predictions about future changes and their potential impacts on Earth.

Carl Bollwinkel, an expert in environmental issues instruction and professor at the University of Northern Iowa, developed a learning activity to better understand the relationship of erratic weather and new disease. Using the example of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, Bollwinkel created a game board, to be used by teams of students to examine and discuss how the food chain can change at times of heavy rains and drought and how those changes can influence a disease outbreak. Bollwinkel states, "One of the potential early effects of climate change is erratic weather, something that all students can understand or have even experienced one way or another. What we want to have students think about are the many ways that erratic weather can affect their lives. Disease is of great interest to students and can be a real hook for getting their attention focused on climate change."

These learning activities are the third part of an overall effort being supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide teacher-friendly materials that focus on the potential consequences of climate variability and change. The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies of Arlington, Virginia is implementing the effort on behalf of NASA and EPA. A list of existing climate change-related education materials was developed as the first part of the effort. As the second part, ten papers discussing the potential regional impacts of climate change have been written and are currently being reviewed by a team of science and education experts. The content of the 10 regional papers will be introduced to students through the classroom-ready learning activities. Distribution of the regional papers and the learning activities is planned for fall of 1999 following a NASA-initiated Earth science education product review.

For more information, contact:

Nancy Colleton, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, 2111 Wilson Blvd., Suite 700, Arlington, VA  22201; phone: (703)875-8634; fax: (703)875-8635; email: ncolleton@aol.com