Last week the first public draft of the Next Generation Science Standards became available on-line.  The new standards lean heavily on the Framework for K-12 Science Education, released a few months ago by the National Academies Press.  The standards were written for a number of reasons including, the fact that the last science standards were released in 1996 and understanding around learning and science has changed substantially since then.  There was also a recognition that the last national standards included too many disconnected topics, not treated in enough depth. Instead the Next Generation Standards pull out a smaller number of core ideas structured in four strands; Earth Space, Physical Science, Life Science and Engineering  
The core ideas were chosen because they:

• have broad importance across multiple science or engineering disciplines or are a key organizing concept of a single discipline
• provide a key tool for understanding to investigating more complex ideas and solving problems
• relate to the interests and life experiences of students or can be connected to societal or personal concerns that require scientific or technical knowledge
• is teachable and learnable over multiple grades at increasing levels of depth and sophistication

In addition the Standards highlight 7 crosscutting concepts and 8 science and engineering practices that are intertwined throughout the core ideas.  The idea being that over multiple years of education in the sciences and engineering, students will actively engage in scientific and engineering practices and apply crosscutting concepts to deepen their understanding of the core ideas in these fields.  (Framework for K-12 Science Education, 2012)

The standards themselves are broken out into performance expectations by topic.  They are expectations are what students are expected to do, but are not necessarily meant to inform instruction.  This short video gives an overview of how to read the standards:

Those of us in the climate change education field were happy to see the inclusion of climate change as a core idea and the importance of students understanding humans as a contributing factor.  Public feedback on the first public draft of the standards is encouraged and welcome, but review can be daunting if you decide to tackle them all.  A few suggested approaches to review from the climate change education angle:

• The hope of these standards is that learning about core ideas happens across the four strands.  Look at how climate change is covered across just across the high school standards.
• The standards are also based on the idea of learning progression across multiple years.  Look at how climate change is covered K-12.  This could mean (but is definitely not limited to)looking at K.WEA Weather, 3.WCI Weather, Climate, and Impacts, MS.ESS-WC Weather and Climate, MS.ESS-HI Human Impacts and HS.ESS-CC Climate Change.

View and review the Next Generation Science Standards.

Previously developed materials that may be helpful in review of the standards and their coverage of climate change include:
The Climate Literacy Principles
These principles highlight the the key scientific principles and concepts important to understanding climate change.

NAAEE/NWF Educator Guidelines for K-12 Global Climate Change Education
This document highlights the developmental stages of students and their capacity to understand the more complex science of climate change.

NSTA's Next Generation Science Standards Resources
http://www.nsta.org/about/standardsupdate/may2012draft.aspx
http://www.nsta.org/about/standardsupdate/default.aspx

Other commentary on the standards and climate change include:
New national standards ask schools to teach climate change

New Classroom Science Standards Up for Review

We published a response to Congressman Cravaack’s amendment to cut funding for climate change education in the Duluth News Tribune.

Read the article…

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week and many thanks to all of you for doing the great work that you do! We loved this observation describing the Spring posted to the online classroom today from Nikolaus at Great River School.

He titled it, There Is Life Among Us.

We were very disappointed to learn today from Patrick Fitzgerald at NWF, that Congressman Chip Cravaack of Minnesota's 8th Congressional District, has offered an amendment to eliminate funding to the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Climate Change Education Program.  This will affect great science-based climate change education projects here in Minnesota that includes the Como Zoo & Conservatory and SERC at Carleton College, an important partner in the Climate Literacy Network.  In the Great Lakes Region NSF has been funding a Great Lakes Network, focused on bringing together educators, scientists and others focused on climate change education to encourage collaboration and decrease duplication of efforts.  Funding from the National Science Foundation for climate change education is integral to the work we do: developing science based climate change education resources and programs and maintaining a nationwide network dedicated specifically to climate change education.

In the past I have blogged on the importance of the "translator" or communicator of climate change, especially when it comes to some of the more complex science.  These two articles caught my eye today.

The article:  Could methane produced by sauropod dinosaurs have helped drive Mesozoic climate warmth? published in Current Biology by David M. Wilkinson, Euan G. Nisbet, and Graeme D. Ruxton

became...

Excuse me: Gassy dinosaurs helped warm Earth written by Seth Borenstein and posted to the Minnesota Public Radio News page.

Which one are you more inclined to read? 

Just last night PBS NewsHour featured about a ten minute segment entitled, Teachers Endure Balancing Act Over Climate Change Curriculum.  Overall it is an impressive vignette of what some educators face when they decide to teach about climate change in their classroom, but also what makes for good climate change education. Cheryl Manning, the featured teacher, points out the importance of starting with asking questions and identifying the misconceptions that may persist among students.  She also discusses the importance of understanding the difference between a theory in everyday life and a scientific theory, based on evidence and much testing.  
 
You can watch the video of the news segment here or

Watch Teachers Endure Balancing Act Over Climate Change Curriculum on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

and if you are free at 5PM Eastern (4PM for us in Minnesota) TODAY, May 3, take time to join a live chat with Cheryl, as well as Susan Buhr from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado, Boulder and Pavane Gorrepati, a high school senior, who founded her school's environmental club, met with President Obama, written a children's book about the environment and researched climate change in China.

Exciting news!  The Minnesota's Changing Climate Project- which includes all of the great work you have been doing, has beennominated for a Minnesota Environmental Initiative Award.  Winners will announced at an event on May 24.  More info.

We have confirmed that Eugenie Scott,the Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education(NCSE), will be speaking on Climate Science in Schools: the Next Evolution, at our free public forum held the evening of August 6th at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Cowles Auditorium, with Will Steger. Moderated by Steve Kelley. 

For the past 30 years NCSE has primarily focused on defending the teaching of evolution in the classroom. In 2012, in response to complaints from teachers that they were coming under fire for teaching global warming and other climate change concepts, NCSE decided to support the teaching of climate change in addition to evolution.  The work of NCSE is clearly important, especially after yesterday's passage of a bill in Tennessee that allows teachers to teach that the science and issue of climate change has "two sides."  More info. 

It is hard not to notice the unusually warm weather that hit Minnesota in the last few weeks, following what we like to call, "the winter that never was."  There has been some pretty
interesting coverage that highlight these anomalies.

Climate Central's interactive map shows how early spring has arrived around the country

The big news in the Climate Change Education world the last few weeks has been the controversy surrounding leaked Heartland Institute documents.  The documents show, among other things, their plan to develop a curriculum for teaching about climate change in K-12 schools. Dr. David Wojick, who is not a climate scientist and received his PhD in epistemology, will develop a set of modules on topics he deems to be “controversial” when in fact there is no controversy.  Curriculum modules include the role of humans causing climate change (science concludes humans are a major driver of climate change so yes, it is us!); how climate models work (science proves their models are reliable) and if CO2 is an air pollutant (which it is).  Two days ago Dr. Peter Gleick admitted to leaking the Heartland documents.  His admission has instigated a variety of responses on whether Dr. Gleick should be considered a hero or condemned for his actions.

Some of you may have seen Will's editorial last week in the Star Tribune raising awareness about the importance of climate literacy.  He wrote:

"Teaching and understanding climate change is a process involving scientific inquiry and educational pedagogy; it is not about politics or partisanship. There is virtually unanimous scientific agreement about climate change."

Reading through the comments that follow the editorial, it is clear that there is a lot of education that is still needed.  This presents a great opportunity for all of you and your students to practice rebutting the misconceptions and denial that still permeates the public.  How empowering for your students to know that they are "smarter" than the average commenter to the Star Tribune!  You can read the comments here or download a document we compiled with all of the comments here.  Ask your students to choose one and write their response and if you are comfortable with it, send your responses to the Star Tribune or share them with us.  As always, we are excited to hear about how things are going in your classroom.

REMINDER!  Please take a few minutes to take our survey about how you have used Minnesota's Changing Climate Curriculum OR why you were unable to do so.  We are in the process of editing the curriculum and creating a new edition for next year.  THANK YOU!  Take the survey here.

Resources and Opportunities
Registration Opens for 7th Annual Summer Institute for Climate Change Education!: PLEASE Share with your colleagues and consider coming back for new sessions and also to share how you used Minnesota's Changing Climate this year.  Information here.

New Website Shares Tools and Resources to Make Minnesota Schools Healthier and More Sustainable:  The Will Steger Foundation is an active participant in the Minnesota Green Schools Coalition – a group of the state’s strongest advocates for our children who are working to create a Minnesota infrastructure of green schools – healthy, high performance schools that are conducive to learning while saving energy, resources and money.  Use this website as a resource and to share with others you know.

Apply for national recognition as a Green Ribbon School!  Applications due February 22, 2012 :  The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) is partnering with the U.S. Department of Education to recognize green schools with the newly launched Green Ribbon Schools program. To be considered for the program, a school will have achieved or made considerable progress toward the three pillars established in the program: 1) energy efficient buildings; 2) healthy students and school environment; and 3) environmental literacy of all graduates.  The combined achievement in these three areas will be the basis for the Green Ribbon Schools award.  More information & a link to the application are found on the MDE website.

In the news…
The USDA Unveils New Plant Hardiness Zone Map  Read More
More on this and how it impacts Minnesota

We want to thank you for being a part of our community of climate literacy ambassadors!

Kristen   

Ann