We are happy to announce that Minnesota's Changing Climate received the Environmental Education Award at the 2012 Environmental Initiative Awards! Thanks to all of our partners who made this work possible!

As the school year is winding down and you are looking back on all you have accomplished this year, please share your thoughts on Minnesota's Changing Climate with us by taking our brief survey. This is your last chance to share feedback before the new edition is finalized. Thank you so much to those who have already shared their thoughts!

The first public draft of the Next Generation Science Standards became available last week and we were happy to see the inclusion of climate change as a core idea. Read more.

Duluth News Tribune published Kristen Poppleton's response to Congressman Chip Cravaack's amendment to cut funding for the National Science Foundation's Climate Change Education Program.

Thanks for all your great work!

Kristen and Ann

Featured Resources

The Natural Resources Defense Council has a great resource that examines what states are doing to prepare for climate change impacts on water resources and what risks they face.

Read this excellent article on the signifcant impact of climate change on moose in Minnesota's coniferous biome.

Upcoming Event

The White House is hosting a Community Partnership Summit in Minneapolis on June 8, and there will be a Clean Air, Climate and Health roundtable event at the summit.

Professional Development Opportunities

Start your summer reading with the Not-So-Serious Book Club:

You are invited to discuss Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd online June 1, Friday 2:30 CT.

The Carbon Diaries 2015 is a story told through the eyes of a teen punk rock guitarist girl. The UK is the first to ration carbon emissions, and society is turned upside down. It's a quick read, maybe a good way to relieve your mind of end-of-semester woes. if you can, please share thoughts on the ICEE forum - even if you do not have time to read the book this is a great way to learn about this Young Adult Fiction book. You may view and post here and log into the meeting space here. Enter as a guest-you don't need a login and password. You will get a free conference call number next week and it will be on the meeting space as you come in. Join here.

Take the time to share information about the 2012 Summer Institute with any of your colleagues who may be interested. Check out the great representation we already have on the map of schools registered for the 2012 Summer Institute. Let's get even more!

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