Atmospheric Science and Climate Literacy Workshop

27-29 November 2007 UCAR

Center Green Auditorium

Atmospheric Science and Climate Literacy Workshop

27-29 November 2007 UCAR

Center Green Auditorium

Session 1: 8:30 – 10:15 am - Overview and Orientation on

Atmospheric Science and Climate Literacy

8:30 am Welcome, Workshop Charge, Definition of Atmospheric Science and Climate Literacy, and Relationships to Other Earth Science Literacy Efforts – Roberta Johnson and John Snow

Welcome

Who’s here?– ~55 in-person participants including leading

scientists, educators, policy specialists– ~40 On-line participants

• Participating via blogs during breakouts and plenary

– Video conference participants from NSF and Goddard

– Volunteer facilitators and online participant liaisons

Workshop Charge

Formulate and build consensus for the Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts that comprise a framework for Atmospheric Science and Climate Literacy

A DefinitionAtmospheric Science and Climate Literacy the scientific knowledge and understandings an individual must have to meaningfully communicate about Earth’s atmosphere and climate and make informed and responsible decisions

– For organizational and practical purposes, the required knowledge and understandings are expressed in terms of a few overarching Essential Principles and a limited number of supporting Fundamental Concepts

Relationships to Other Earth Science Literacy Efforts

Earth System Literacy– Ocean Literacy– Climate Literacy– AMS Education Program: “Earth's Climate

System Paradigm”– Overarching Earth System Literacy Strategy– Atmospheric Science and Climate Literacy

8:45 am – Building a Framework for Earth System Literacy – Jill Karsten

9:15 am – Reflections on Earth System Science & Environmental Literacy – Susan Buhr

9:45 am – The Ocean Literacy Plan - Sarah Schoedinger

10:00 am – Plan for Session 2 Essential Principles Breakout Groups and Logistics – John Snow and Roberta Johnson

10:00 am Plan for Session 2 Essential Principles Breakout Groups and Logistics – John Snow and Roberta Johnson

Essential Principles “Big Ideas”

• Is a pithy statement that captures the essence of a system

• Organizes more detailed concepts into a coherent whole

• Stands alone Would never fit “under” another concept or principle

Each Essential Principle …

Fundamental Concepts “Important Details”

• Supports one or more Essential Principles• Represents foundational knowledge without which it

would be impossible to understand an Essential Principle and possibly even other Fundamental Concepts

• Can be deconstructed (unpacked) into sub-concepts that must be introduced at age- and developmentally appropriate times (grade levels) in order to lead to an understanding of the fundamental concept

• Is not an example or simple factoid

Each Fundamental Concept …

1

Example from Ocean Literacy 1 The Earth has one big

ocean with many features

a The ocean is the dominant physical feature on our planet Earth—covering approximately 70% of the planet’s surface. There is one ocean with many ocean basins, such as the North Pacific, South Pacific, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Indian and Arctic.

b An ocean basin’s size, shape and features (islands, trenches, mid-ocean ridges, rift valleys) vary due to the movement of Earth’s lithospheric plates. Earth’s highest peaks, deepest valleys and flattest vast plains are all in the ocean.

Strawman for ASCL

1 Earth is surrounded by a thin atmosphere whose composition and structure has coevolved with all living things

a The atmosphere is a mixture of gases (commonly called "air") containing approximately 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. Other important gases include argon, carbon dioxide, ozone and methane. The atmosphere also contains a highly variable amount (averaging about 1%) of water vapor.

b Earth's atmosphere consists of a series of layers defined by their chemical and thermal characteristics. From the surface up, these are the troposphere (which includes the planetary boundary layer), the stratosphere, the mesosphere, and the thermosphere.

Practical Considerations• Targets K-12 (formal and informal)• Competition for classroom time

– 6 to 8 Essential Principles (7 = “ideal”)– 25 to 30 Fundamental Principles (4 to 5 for each

Essential Principle)– Mantra for the workshop: Less is more! fewer

are better

• Rough parallelism to the 7 Essential Principles for Ocean Literacy???

• Earth System approach inherently interdisciplinary; ties to ocean, solid earth, life

Instructions for Breakout Groups

• For Session 2 “Essential Principles Breakout groups”, participation is assigned

• 6 groups of ~10, each to come up with set of candidate Essential Principles in 90 min– Facilitator and Online Participant Liaison (OPL) assigned to each

group– Select a Recorder from participants who will be responsible for

recording EPs and advocating in plenary– Recorder passes ppt with EPs to OPL, who will get them on

computer for afternoon report outs and plenary session– Recorder also transcribes EPs to large Post-its for discussion

after lunch

Essential PrincipalsEssential Principals

Breakout session: Breakout session: <insert # here (2a, 2b, <insert # here (2a, 2b, etc.)>etc.)>

Recorder: <insert name>Recorder: <insert name>

Final StepFinal Step

►At the end of the breakout session, the At the end of the breakout session, the Recorder should save this file, using the Recorder should save this file, using the following naming convention:following naming convention:

ascl_breakoutascl_breakout_<session#(2a, 2b, _<session#(2a, 2b, etc)>.etc)>.pptppt

eg., eg., ascl_breakout_2c.pptascl_breakout_2c.ppt►Once you have saved the file, please Once you have saved the file, please

transfer it to your session’s OPL, who will transfer it to your session’s OPL, who will upload it for use in the following plenary.upload it for use in the following plenary.

• In the afternoon, we will discuss sets of candidate EPs from 6 groups and come to consensus working draft of framework of 6-8 EP’s

• Choice of breakout groups in Wednesday sessions on FCs, with proviso that we may need to do some balancing of groups– We will run through full set of EPs twice, so that each

participant will have a chance to contribute to FC discussion in up to 4 EP breakouts

Instructions for Breakout Groups, cont.

EP2FCs7EP1

FCs7

EP4FCs7

EP3FCs7

EP7FCs8

EP6FCs8

EP5FCs8

Set of Consensus

EPs

Sessions3-4

EP5FCs

EP2FCs

EP7FCs

EP1FCs

EP6FCs

EP4FCs

EP3FCs

Set of consensus

FCs

Sessions8-9

EP2

EP3

EP4EP5 EP6

EP1

Session2

assignedEP7FCs6

EP6FCs6

EP5FCs6

EP2FCs5EP1

FCs5

EP4FCs5

EP3FCs5

choice

Logistics

• Rooms

• Facilitators stand up and show signs

• Breakout codes on name tag

Break!