Teaching the language of climate change science

Julie Hayes, Bronwyn Parkin

• Publisher: Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA)
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781925132618
• eBook ISBN: 9781925132625
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Teaching the language of climate change sciencewill provide you with the support to facilitate these big conversations in the classroom — demonstrating how scientific concepts are developed through the language you use and strategically handing over to your students.

Chapter 1

WHY TEACH ABOUT
CLIMATE CHANGE?

Rationale for a climate change progression

Climate change is already impacting Earth, making some places hotter and drier and other places wetter and more likely to experience severe storms. The excess greenhouse gases humans have put into the atmosphere have warmed the oceans, changed weather patterns and caused serious damage to ecosystems such as coral reefs. The poles have warmed disproportionately and, as a consequence, ice is disappearing and vital food chains are disrupted.

As teachers we know this and want to address the issues of climate change in a systematic way with our students. We don’t want to alarm students, but knowing the science behind climate change isn’t alarming, it’s empowering. Only with accurate information about the causes and impacts of climate change can students begin to make evidence-based decisions, and take informed action to reduce their carbon footprint and care for the environment.

The elaborated teaching and learning progression offered in this book aims to support teachers and students in making the links between science and climate change at an appropriate level of understanding for each year level. Particular science descriptors and elaborations from the Australian Curriculum have been selected for their relevance to climate change.

The sequence provides a language-focused, logical and coherent teaching and learning progression in science across the early years and primary years of schooling. The focus is on the language, knowledge, understanding and attitudes that students need to become articulate and active in mitigating the effects of climate change.¹ The teaching and learning progression was developed by educators from the Primary English Teaching Association of Australia (PETAA) in consultation with an advisory group made up of representatives from science teachers’ associations and academics from a number of universities (see p. x).

Factors other than climate change – such as overpopulation, land clearing, overfishing, extracting too much water from rivers and aquifers, and misusing pesticides – have led to environmental degradation. These factors are important areas of learning for sustainability. However, the focus in this book is more narrowly on the causes and consequences of climate change. In this way, this book can give time and close attention to developing useful language for teachers to mediate learning.

The progression is not just about developing scientific knowledge. The three pillars of the Sustainability cross-curriculum priority – Systems, World Views and Futures – provide the imperative for two further essential responses. Firstly, the development of positive attitudes towards the planet: appreciation and respect for Earth’s ecosystems. Secondly and importantly, this book aims to develop a sense of responsibility, critical thinking and a willingness to make decisions that lead to action. In addition, the book aims to foster respect for and trust in the rigour of the processes used by the scientific community to gather evidence; to provide reliable information; and to explore and discover ways that people can slow down climate change so that the planet and all that is living on it survives and thrives.

The work of scientists is beginning to alert us to the fact that we are highly dependent on the biodiversity of the natural world. Biodiversity helps with nutrient and water cycles, crop pollination, control of diseases, and the production of medicines, food and fibres. Climate change threatens the biodiversity on our planet.

The progression begins at Preschool level and continues to Year 8. It supports the development of informed, articulate and active citizens, who recognise the Earth as their home, recognise the interdependence of all living things, and have the will and means to help create a sustainable future.

Why the need for this book?

An abundance of resources, both print and web-based, is available to use in teaching about climate change. However, it is sometimes difficult for primary teachers to work out which activities to use for which year levels, and the activities are often not linked to the Australian Curriculum: Science and to the Sustainability cross-curriculum priority. It is time-consuming for teachers to work out which science descriptor has implications for climate change, to find relevant resources, to choose relevant activities, and then to decide which actions for sustainability are appropriate. This book fills that gap.

While sustainability has been identified as a priority in the Australian Curriculum, it is often left to teachers to work out the links between the science curriculum, climate change and the impact of human activity at a level appropriate for their class. Although climate is not explicitly mentioned in the science curriculum content descriptions until Year 10, a deep understanding of how our actions and use of Earth’s resources affect the environment and living things can be developed through all the science strands. This book shows teachers how science topics can be taught with a systematic emphasis on developing stewardship, responsibility and care for our planet and the environment.

Why PETAA?

For almost 50 years, PETAA has provided books and professional learning that offer practical help to classroom teachers. Knowing that learning is mediated and developed through oral and written language, this PETAA publication includes model science texts, which we call focus texts, that exemplify the language students need to use in order to talk and write like scientists. The language, of course, holds the scientific concepts, and the concepts are developed through language.

The focus texts are both the starting point and the end point of this approach to science teaching. They guide the kinds of activities students could be involved in to understand the topics. The activities allow the teacher to share scientific knowledge using the language of the texts. The end point is for students to gain control over the language suggested in the focus texts. Chapter 2 outlines the approach in more detail, and is an important read before proceeding to the year-level activities in subsequent chapters.

PETAA, with its strong basis in literacy theory and research is well placed to support teachers in the literacy of science. The advisory group of academics and science teachers has verified the accuracy of the science content and sequence. PETAA continues to work in partnerships with others to provide practical help to primary teachers across Australia.

Who is this book for?

Any teacher of science

This book is for Preschool, primary and middle-year teachers of the Australian Curriculum: Science. It is intended for non-specialist classroom teachers as well as specialist science teachers.

Whole school

The book will help schools that want a whole-school approach to teaching about climate change or already have a whole-school approach to sustainability.

Language-focused teachers

The book supports teachers who understand or are willing to explore the power of language in learning, and who want to support their students in becoming advocates and agents for the planet.

How the book is structured

The teaching and learning progression outlined in this book is not a substitute for the mandated science program – it is part of it. The most benefit will be derived from schools wishing to address climate change by using the progression at every year level.

Chapter 2 has two purposes. Firstly, it supports teachers in understanding the role of language in learning, specifically scientific language. However, knowing what we want students to say and write isn’t sufficient so, secondly, the chapter provides useful, sequential pedagogic strategies for supporting students in the development of scientific language.

Chapters 3 to 8 are all year-level focused. Each chapter is structured in the following order:

• A brief introduction to the concepts and language intended for climate change science in this year level or levels.
• The relevant achievement standards.
• The science descriptors and topics relevant to climate change science, and the implications for sustainability, divided into the subsections of biological science, Earth science, chemical science and physical science.
• For each topic, a focus text that summarises the conceptual and language learning intended, in the order intended.
• For each topic, key messages relevant to climate change that we need to convey and that students begin to own.
• For each topic, suggested orienting activities and an inquiry, sequenced in a consistent way that can lead to student langua...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgement of country
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• How to use this book
• Chapter 1: Why teach about climate change?
• Chapter 2: The role of language in climate change science
• Chapter 3: Climate change science in Preschool
• Chapter 4: Climate change science in Foundation
• Chapter 5: Climate change science in Years 1 and 2
• Chapter 6: Climate change science in Years 3 and 4
• Chapter 7: Climate change science in Years 5 and 6
• Chapter 8: Climate change science in Years 7 and 8
• Chapter 9: Taking action as responsible global citizens
• Glossary
• Backcover