Teaching Climate Change for Grades 6–12

Empowering Science Teachers to Take on the Climate Crisis Through NGSS

Kelley Le

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000402933
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Education
• Categoria: Teaching Science & Technology

Looking to tackle climate change and climate science in your classroom? This timely and insightful book supports and enables secondary science teachers to develop effective curricula ready to meet the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) by grounding their instruction on the climate crisis.

Nearly one-third of the secondary science standards relate to climate science, but teachers need design and implementation support to create empowering learning experiences centered around the climate crisis. Experienced science educator, instructional coach, and educational leader Dr. Kelley T. Le offers this support, providing an overview of the teaching shifts needed for NGSS and to support climate literacy for students via urgent topics in climate science and environmental justice – from the COVID-19 pandemic to global warming, rising sea temperatures, deforestation, and mass extinction. You'll also learn how to engage the complexity of climate change by exploring social, racial, and environmental injustices stemming from the climate crisis that directly impact students.

By anchoring instruction around the climate crisis, Dr. Le offers guidance on how to empower students to be the agents of change needed in their own communities. A range of additional teacher resources are also available at www.empoweredscienceteachers.com.

Part 1

Looking Back to Move Forward

1

Reenvisioning Science Teaching

Read this when:

• You’re ready to think about your own pedagogical practices (ways of teaching) to determine where you are as we align to the NGSS.
• You’re ready to engage in a paradigm shift (ways of thinking) to transform your teaching practices.

A Story about Tradition

It was New Year’s Eve, and Audrey was given the honor of cooking her mother’s famous honey ham for their big family feast. Audrey sent her partner to the store to purchase the meat and made the special request for the butcher to cut the ends off the ham. When her partner returned with the groceries, he asked about the special request to which Audrey responded, “It’s how my mom does it.” That night they gathered at her mother’s home to celebrate, and Audrey’s curiosity took hold. At the dining table where the entire family convened, she asked her mother why it was so important to cut the ends off of the ham. Thinking it had to do with how the ham needed to cook more evenly, she was surprised by her mother’s response, “It’s how Grandma always made it.” Not entirely satisfied with her mother’s response, she decided to ask her grandmother directly. After a few seconds, Grandma responded, “I had to cut the sides off so the ham could fit into my roaster.”

When you think about this story, it parallels with how many people still think about education and teaching today. Consider how much (or little) education has evolved over the decades compared to technology, transportation, or even nature. Although there is a vast amount of research detailing how students effectively learn, most of those findings rarely make it into the classroom. I encourage you to think about how some components of teaching fall in line with educational tradition and compare it to research-based teaching practices on how students learn. When you think about aligning your practices and curriculum to the NGSS, it’s important to identify what can and cannot be changed about teaching. You might not have the power to change the overall structure of education yet (i.e. bell schedule, instructional minutes, academic calendar, student–teacher ratio, etc.), but you do have the power to change your beliefs about how and what should be taught. It begins by asking the right questions about teaching and learning, and then doing our due diligence to see what credible researchers have discovered about your wonderings. I invite you to complete Exhibit 1.1 to start unveiling your underlying beliefs about teaching and learning.

As you begin to think about your current teaching practices in relation to climate science and NGSS, start the process by being honest with your starting point. Think about realistic learning goals you might have to enhance your instruction along with actionable steps to accomplish those goals. Consider writing these goals in the margin to see if they change throughout this book.

Exhibit 1.1 Common Questions about Schooling

Read through the following questions and check the boxes for ones you’re most curious about.

• Why are students trained to raise their hands to speak? What does that teach them?
• How has education changed (or not) in the last century?
• What have researchers uncovered about how students effectively learn science?
• Why is there a need for the NGSS?
• What are the differences between NGSS-aligned curriculum and NGSS-aligned teaching? How might a teacher have one, but not the other?
• What might it look like to co-construct meaningful science experiences with students?
• Who decides what and/or how content should be taught?
• Why is there an emphasis on the climate crisis now in the curriculum?
• Is there a need for culturally relevant or responsive teaching? How confident are you with this framework?
• Education was initially created with only one audience in mind prior to the 1960s. Has it (if at all) transformed since to support every student?
• Why might it be important for students to see themselves in my science lessons? How confident are you with what this means?
• When do you tend to equity or justice-centered instruction? Is that one of your priorities?

What are some things you’re wondering about as you think about traditional education and the paradigm shift needed for the NGSS?

1.

2.

An Opportunity to Challenge Science Education

Don Duggan Haas, the Director of Teacher Programs at the Paleontology Research Institute (PRI), affirms that “the most valuable things in our educational system are the human resources, especially the wisdom and passion of the teaching force” (2020). In his Science in the Virtual Pub segment, he breaks down the components of the traditional educational system as a call to action to transform schooling. Haas (2020) argues that every part of society has evolved including the technology and innovations for communication, entertainment, energy capturing systems, and transportation systems, among others. Surprisingly, the one system that has not seen improvements in the last 40 years is education. Despite the vast body of research that highlights what teachers and students need to learn more effectively, not much has transferred to the classroom.

Haas (2020) notes that real problems that people care about are highly intersectional, such as the climate crisis happening all around us. What is needed in order to mitigate the impacts will be a transformation of how we think, feel, and act in our daily lives. That is not an easy ask. Furthermore, Haas contends that people tend to adopt innovations, “When they are different enough to make a difference, but not too different that you don’t understand it” (2020). Essentially, teachers tend to adopt new practices that are not too far off from what they have already been doing that may yield better results. Teachers also tend to adopt new practices that are aligned with their underlying core values of what they believe reflects good teaching and learning. In order for you to invest more time into changing your practices (which will also reflect in your curriculum design), you need to know the rationale behind those ideas, and how they will yield results with ongoing classroom support. Complete Haas’ adapted activity in Exhibit 1.2 to unveil more of your underlying beliefs about schooling.

Exhibit 1.2 What a Great Idea!

I want you to stop for a second, and try to forget everything you know about schooling. Imagine that a friend approaches you with a new and innovative business idea. He pitches the following:

Hey, I have a great idea! Let’s put 1000 teenagers in a building and sort them into groups of 40. Have someone talk at them for 55–90 minutes about the atom. Then move them down the hall and have someone else talk at them or engage them in activities for exactly the same amount of time about math (or another other subject). Then move them down the hall and repeat this four more times in the same day. Let’s do this over and over again. Day after day. Month after month. Year after year, for centuries to come. Isn’t that a great idea?

Haas exposes the structural components of our educational system that have not changed in light of research-based studies on how students learn.

Think about and/or write some thoughts you have for the following questions.

1.Using research on how students learn, can/should we redesign learning experiences to reflect those ideas? Why or why not?

2.Has this educational system done an effective job in supporting all students? Which students? To what extent? Where could we improve? Would you confidently say that schooling is 100 percent accessible to 100 percent of the students?

3.What is within your realm of control as you think about changes that can be made to improve students’ learning experien...