Download - Infuse your science course with green learning! James H. Wandersee Louisiana State University Renee M. Clary Mississippi State University EarthScholars

Infuse yourscience coursewith green learning!• James H. WanderseeLouisiana State University• Renee M. ClaryMississippi State University

EarthScholars Research Group™EarthScholars Research Group™ http://EarthScholars.com

Our own Green Learning Motto

“Tread lightly upon the Earth.”

IMAGE CREDIT: http://i.treehugger.com/files/th_images/parkwheel.jpg

Why do Students like Green Learning?• The future is where they will live.• Therefore, all students can be moved to care

about the Earth.• They grasp that they need to master the

knowledge and skills needed to solve the global environmental problems we face.

• They like being role models for adults in conserving resources, promoting a sustainable lifestyle, and protecting Planet Earth.

• They wonder: How can we have a green future or a green economy without green learning? Who will teach us that?

• Why not YOU?

Teaching science in green-infused ways

• Incorporate environmental themes and data into science classes to show students the applicability of science in everyday life

• Use news stories to connect global issues to your local environment and your subject

• Get them active! Assess the health of a local stream, or perform an audit of your school’s energy consumption and recommend improvements. Connect your course to the Earth

• Co-construct other timely ways to incorporate environmental themes into science lessons.

Green Checklists & Pledges

Teach them Bloom’s Taxonomy Emphasize learning, not grades

Create green task forces

• In each of your classes, students can:• Walk around and look for course-related

opportunities for green improvements in their classroom, school, and community

• Focus on addressing one problem at a time• Provide scientifically based recommendations resources, and green science education to

schoolmates, parents, teachers, and the administration

• Operate a greengreen student suggestion box:• Helps build engagement, generates great ideas• Helps set priorities among the problems they face

Adopt an environmental focus(here is one web-sourced thinking starter)

Teach them our class-based precautionary approach

• Use as a foundation for careful environmental decision making

• Its slogan is: “Better safe than sorry!”STEPS1. Take anticipatory action2. Assess alternatives3. Exercise democracy4. Choose the safest solution

Some favorable outcomesSome favorable outcomes• Green schools empower kids to make a

difference• Green schools teach them environmental and

health values and habits that will stay with them for a lifetime

• Research studies show—for example-- that "daylighting" (increasing the amount of daylight in a building), improving indoor air quality, and hands-on, experiential environmental curricula are all linked to higher test scores

http://www.ecowalkthetalk.com

Thinking, feeling, acting…

Free Video Course that we’ve used:• The Habitable Planet is a multimedia course consisting

of 13 units. Each unit is composed of a 30-minute video and an online text chapter.

• The web site acts as a home base to begin study, a place to organize the course materials. It provides access to all the course components plus additional resources, which include: • 5 interactive lab activities;• Visuals: animations and images used in the course; • Harvard University environmental scientist biographies,• Edited transcripts from each of the video case study interviews

• Web site URL: http://www.learner.org/channel/courses/envsci/index.html

The Global Education Project’s Earth Wall Chart is

“Anthropocene-Panoramic”• Title: Earth: A Graphic Look at the State of the World. • 100 Full-Color Graphs and Data Maps• “A Chapter’s Worth of Knowledge in Each Graphic”• Non-Partisan Information• 27" by 36" Wall Chart (folded or laminated)

http://www.theglobaleducationproject.org

Each year since global measurements of CO2 began, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased.

TIME SERIES OF STATES

The Chart Intervention:Research Findings

The majority of students: • (a) increased their personal knowledge of the distribution

and limits of the Earth's resources [88%]; • (b) shifted their knowledge and interest horizons from

regional or national to global [72%]; • (c) recalibrated their own professed personal

consumption patterns to accommodate their new understandings of global resource realities [65%];

• (d) expressed intent to reduce their ecological footprints[68%];

• (e) confided that the chart had impacted their personal discourse positions on Earth-related issues, and heightened the feeling that they were familiar and necessary stewards of Planet Earth [81%].

Infusing environmental topics

1. Teach the science first 2. Teach with data 3. Use active learning techniques4. Emphasize student-generated problems 5. Use controversy and topics with

incomplete evidence constructively6. Use role-playing to protect students7. Assure “all is not gloom and doom”8. Lead by example, but don't sermonize

©EarthScholars 2011

The Coal Cycle:The Coal Cycle:Science and SustainabilityScience and Sustainability

Renee M. Clary James H. WanderseeRenee M. Clary James H. WanderseeMississippi State University Louisiana State UniversityMississippi State University Louisiana State University

http: EarthScholars.comhttp: EarthScholars.com

AN EXAMPLE OF INFUSION


Multipurpose COAL!Multipurpose COAL!

• Coal fueled the Industrial Revolution, and changed the course of human history

• . . . and its history is OLDER than that recorded by humans!

http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/assets/0000/7761/mine_safety2_up_medium.jpg?1276869681


A Coal CycleA Coal Cycle

LithificationRecovery as Fossil Fuel

Plants, deposition

Consumption as an Energy Source

CO2 in the atmosphere


Coal CycleCoal Cycle• A subset of the

Carbon Cycle:– Photosynthesizing plants

fixed carbon– Plants provide organic

source– Carbon returned to

atmosphere as plants decayed

– Some plants were buried and sequestered carbon


Coal: The OriginsCoal: The Origins

• Biochemical sedimentary rock– Plant accumulation &

compaction yield PEAT– PEAT is altered and

compressed to LIGNITE– Additional alteration

yields BITUMINOUS COAL

– Metamorphosed coal is ANTHRACITE



• Processes require MILLIONS of years

• Changing sea levels – Rising sea levels drowned

vegetation in swamps.– Cyclothems record repeating

marine and non-marine strata interbedded with coal

http://earth.usc.edu/~stott/Catalina/images/paleoclimate/cyclothem.jpg



• These conditions existed many times in Earth’s history!

United States Geological Survey


Coal and the HydrosphereCoal and the Hydrosphere

• Plants were part of a swamp• Transgressing and regressing seas

formed coal-containing cyclothems• Water is also used

in coal extraction process (and can

become polluted)


Coal and the LithosphereCoal and the Lithosphere

• Coal mining impacts Earth’s surface– Large quantities of rock material

removed

http://www.trunity.net/files/147701_147800/147775/strip_coal_mining.jpg


Coal and the AtmosphereCoal and the Atmosphere

• Coal mining impacts atmosphere– Dust enters atmosphere, and is linked

to some diseases

– -Methane is released during mining

operations

http://images.morris.com/images/juneau/mdControlled/cms/2009/11/11/515209602.jpg


Coal Cycle in the ClassroomCoal Cycle in the Classroom

• The Coal Cycle can address concepts in biology, ecology, geology, chemistry . .

• . . .plus environmental stewardship and climate change

The Coal Controversy

Rationale for Teaching Legitimate Scientific Controversies

• Recent research (Clark & Mayer, 2002) on learning indicates that including structured controversial topics in a course can heighten student interest, improve attention, and deepen understanding of the subject.

• Almost every area we teach in the sciences has its scientifically controversial environmental topics, but many courses fail to introduce students to them for the sake of acceleration and expediency.


The Coal CycleThe Coal Cycle

• Resources are available for teachers’ classroom use– from BOTH proponents and opponents

of coal-fueled power

– TEACHERS SHOULD PREVIEW RESOURCE MATERIALS BEFORE CLASSROOM USE

http://www.grist.org/phpThumb/phpThumb.php?src=http://www.grist.org/i/assets/2/coal-protest-sign-focus-the-nation.jpg&w=307

http://www.celsias.com/media/uploads/admin/clean-coal-cool.jpg


Mining DilemmaMining Dilemma

• Muffin Mining Activity– Retrieve blueberries without impacting

muffin’s shape

• Coal Mining Calamity– Retrieve bandanas within book pile without

affecting pile

• Your Carbon Footprint– Your place on the grid!

Your Behavior BreakdownDriving & Flying (26.6%)

Recycling & Waste (2.2%)Food & Diet (5.3%)

Home Energy (65.8%)Your Behavior BreakdownDriving & Flying (26.6%)

Recycling & Waste (2.2%)Food & Diet (5.3%)

Home Energy (65.8%)



• Coal Cycle provides a specific example to investigate the carbon cycle

• Our research supported the use of the Coal Cycle to incorporate Earth System Science in the classroom

http://www.gly.bris.ac.uk/www/ess/img/questpix.jpg



• Our research supports the Coal Cycle as a geobiological portal through which students study scientific concepts, and become environmentally conscious of human impact on our planet.

http://www.metropolismag.com/webimages/2919/GlobalFootprintNetwork.jpg


Now Published!Now Published!

• Free resource through NSTA!• Connect the Spheres with the Coal Cycle

Renee Clary and James Wandersee Science Scope, 34 (2) (October 2010), 20-29.

We’ve found that:

Any science course canbe taught using environmentalapplications and promotingenvironmental stewardship.

Why do so?

Motivated studentsare a joyto teach!

Download - Infuse your science course with green learning! James H. Wandersee Louisiana State University Renee M. Clary Mississippi State University EarthScholars

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