School of Environmental Studies, Apple Valley, MN

In 2006, the Will Steger Foundation held its first annual Summer Institute for Climate Change Education, a five-day professional development seminar, attended by approximately 40 educators at the School of Environmental Studies.

The concept for the Institute came to life during through a series of brainstorming sessions with veteran teachers at the School of Environmental Studies (SES) in Apple Valley, MN during the spring of 2006. We had been searching for a way to create global warming curriculum for our website that would be convenient for teachers and experiential in nature. Out of these discussions came the idea to engage teachers in learning about global warming through writing activities for the website.

Goals for the 2006 Summer Institute

• To provide base knowledge on global warming and it's implications

• To provide an introduction to Inuit culture and the impact of global warming on the traditional way of life

• To provide a model(s) of best practices in curriculum writing

• To produce a cross-disciplinary activities catalog on global warming for grades 6-12

• To generate excitement for the 2007 expedition to Baffin Island

Keynote speakers include meteorologist Paul Douglas, Liesl Chapman from the Education Department at the Science Museum of Minnesota, and Inuit guide and expedition co-leader Theo Ikummaq. The Summer Institute provided WSF with an opportunity to cooperate with educators in writing supplemental activities for the website. Teachers were able to get the knowledge they needed to teach global warming and its implications and to follow the Baffin Island Expedition in their classrooms. In contributing at least one global warming activity to the Will Steger Foundation activities to supplement the original Global Warming 101 Lesson Plans for grades 6-12, they supported not only WSF but themselves through the experience of creating this new material.