Research Projects - Climate Change (Track 1)

Education

The goal of the Education component is to develop educational infrastructure to train students and teachers at all levels to be leaders in climate change research and provide public outreach on climate change issues. Integration of climate change education and research will be enhanced through delivering training programs, developing K-12 curricular materials, and providing courses. Science research teams will be developed from K-12 teachers, community college students, university undergraduates, and graduate students. Researchers on these teams will work with educators in developing new curriculum materials for middle schools, community colleges, and universities. Assessment will be coordinated with schools to ensure that all state standards are met and learning is enhanced through integration of climate change science.

An undergraduate research program focused on climate change within the NSHE system will be developed and an NSF EPSCoR funded Climate Change Scholarship program offered annually to a total of thirty community college and university students focused on climate change and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) research. Two annual poster sessions will be held and an annual two-day undergraduate research symposium. New courses on climate change will be offered through UNR and UNLV and taught using distance education to allow students at multiple NSHE campuses to enroll. At the graduate level, a fellowship program will be created in which 12-19 students annually will be accepted to work with NSHE faculty to obtain a certificate in climate change as part of their graduate degree.

To culminate these efforts, a symposium on climate change education will be held during the summer at the beginning of the second year of the program and will include educators at all levels within Nevada and professionals from outside the state. The symposium will focus on a comprehensive evaluation of current climate change educational activities at NSHE institutions and provide a guideline for developing and selecting new courses and integrating curriculum.

Annual Report Highlights

Title: Middle School Teachers Experience First-Hand the Effect of Climate Change on Southern Nevada

Authors: P. Buck (Desert Research Institute), and L. Rudd (Nevada State College), Paul.buck@dri.edu, Lawrence.Rudd@nsc.nevada.edu

Outcome: The 2010 Nevada Summer Institute gave Southern Nevada middle school teachers the opportunity to observe disturbances such as fire and invasive species in the field, and how climate change can impact these disturbances. They learned how invasives such as red brome and cheatgrass can dramatically alter the fire regime, and establish immediately after a fire, outcompeting native species.

Impact: The two-week long Summer Institute on Climate Change Education gives middle school teachers tools for implementing climate change science content and processes into their classrooms. To date, over 2,000 middle school students have been reached and or influenced by the Summer Institute.

Summer Institute participants learning to use GPS equipment to track a desert tortoise near Searchlight, NV (Photo: Aubrey Bonde)

Additional Information: Fieldwork is an integral part of the Summer Institute. It demonstrates to participants how research is conducted and data are gathered, and relate the field observations with classroom information distributed earlier in the summer.

This work was supported by NSF Cooperative Agreement EPS-‐0814372 to the Nevada System of Higher Education.

2009 Annual Report Highlight

Presentations

Education
Education Presentation