Environmental Science

Innovate to Mitigate: Teacher Role in a Student Competition

The Innovate to Mitigate (I2M) project poses challenges for secondary-school students to design feasible, innovative strategies that mitigate CO2 emissions and thus global warming. Design is informed by research on problem-based learning, pedagogy for which poses demands on teachers. This paper presents preliminary evidence about how I2M teachers supported student teams to engage in science and engineering practices.

Author/Presenter

Gillian Puttick

Brian Drayton

Santiago Gasca

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2023
Short Description

The Innovate to Mitigate (I2M) project poses challenges for secondary-school students to design feasible, innovative strategies that mitigate CO2 emissions and thus global warming. Design is informed by research on problem-based learning, pedagogy for which poses demands on teachers. This paper presents preliminary evidence about how I2M teachers supported student teams to engage in science and engineering practices.

Teachers’ Use and Adaptation of a Model-based Climate Curriculum: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study

Foregrounding climate education in formal science learning environments provides students with opportunities to develop critical climate-related knowledge and skills. However, research has shown many challenges to teaching and learning about Earth’s climate and global climate change (GCC). This longitudinal study aims to establish how secondary science teachers, over time, implement model-based climate curricula in support of students’ climate and GCC education by utilizing EzGCM. The model (EzGCM) is a data-driven, computer-based climate modeling tool use to explore global climate data.

Author/Presenter

Kimberly Carroll Steward

David Gosselin

Devarati Bhattacharya

Mark Chandler

Cory T. Forbes

Year
2024
Short Description

Foregrounding climate education in formal science learning environments provides students with opportunities to develop critical climate-related knowledge and skills. However, research has shown many challenges to teaching and learning about Earth’s climate and global climate change (GCC). This longitudinal study aims to establish how secondary science teachers, over time, implement model-based climate curricula in support of students’ climate and GCC education by utilizing EzGCM. The model (EzGCM) is a data-driven, computer-based climate modeling tool use to explore global climate data.

Teachers’ Use and Adaptation of a Model-based Climate Curriculum: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study

Foregrounding climate education in formal science learning environments provides students with opportunities to develop critical climate-related knowledge and skills. However, research has shown many challenges to teaching and learning about Earth’s climate and global climate change (GCC). This longitudinal study aims to establish how secondary science teachers, over time, implement model-based climate curricula in support of students’ climate and GCC education by utilizing EzGCM. The model (EzGCM) is a data-driven, computer-based climate modeling tool use to explore global climate data.

Author/Presenter

Kimberly Carroll Steward

David Gosselin

Devarati Bhattacharya

Mark Chandler

Cory T. Forbes

Year
2024
Short Description

Foregrounding climate education in formal science learning environments provides students with opportunities to develop critical climate-related knowledge and skills. However, research has shown many challenges to teaching and learning about Earth’s climate and global climate change (GCC). This longitudinal study aims to establish how secondary science teachers, over time, implement model-based climate curricula in support of students’ climate and GCC education by utilizing EzGCM. The model (EzGCM) is a data-driven, computer-based climate modeling tool use to explore global climate data.

Innovate to Mitigate: Microgenesis of Student Design and Rationale in a Crowdsourcing Competition to Mitigate Global Warming

The Innovate to Mitigate project adapts crowdsourcing to support project-based STEM education, posing design challenges for secondary-school students. Students are charged with designing feasible innovative strategies to mitigate CO2 emissions and thus global warming. The paper draws on data from 3 project teams. The paper presents evidence that a web-mediated community of practice supports STEM learning of concepts and STEM practices and examines conditions under which the environment can enable an account of microgenesis of that learning.

Author/Presenter

Brian Drayton

Gillian Puttick

Santiago Gasca

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2022
Short Description

The Innovate to Mitigate project adapts crowdsourcing to support project-based STEM education, posing design challenges for secondary-school students. Students are charged with designing feasible innovative strategies to mitigate CO2 emissions and thus global warming. The paper draws on data from 3 project teams. The paper presents evidence that a web-mediated community of practice supports STEM learning of concepts and STEM practices and examines conditions under which the environment can enable an account of microgenesis of that learning.

Eco-Solutioning: The Design and Evaluation of a Curricular Unit to Foster Students’ Creation of Solutions to Address Local Socio-Scientific Issues

The global pandemic and climate change have led to unprecedented environmental, social, and economic challenges with interdisciplinary STEM foundations. Even as STEM learning has never been more important, very few pre-college programs prepare students to address these challenges by emphasizing socio-scientific issue (SSI) problem solving and the engineering design of solutions to address local phenomena.

Author/Presenter

Nancy Butler Songer

Guillermo D. Ibarrola Recalde

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2021
Short Description

The global pandemic and climate change have led to unprecedented environmental, social, and economic challenges with interdisciplinary STEM foundations. Even as STEM learning has never been more important, very few pre-college programs prepare students to address these challenges by emphasizing socio-scientific issue (SSI) problem solving and the engineering design of solutions to address local phenomena. The paper discusses the design and evaluation of a pre-college, SSI curricular unit where students expand their learning by creating solutions to increase biodiversity within local urban neighborhoods.

Theoretical Diversity and Inclusivity in Science and Environmental Education Research: A Way Forward

As distinct communities of practice (COP), science education research (SER) and environmental education research (EER) have both matured a great deal in recent decades, coming to include a greater diversity of theoretical perspectives, worldviews, and researcher and participant voices. In this paper, we present a view of theoretical inclusivity that promises a rich, robust research landscape for both EER and SER through the deliberate inclusion of non-Western theories.

Author/Presenter

Roberta Howard Hunter

Gail Richmond

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2022
Short Description

As distinct communities of practice (COP), science education research (SER) and environmental education research (EER) have both matured a great deal in recent decades, coming to include a greater diversity of theoretical perspectives, worldviews, and researcher and participant voices. In this paper, we present a view of theoretical inclusivity that promises a rich, robust research landscape for both EER and SER through the deliberate inclusion of non-Western theories.

Training a New Generation of Problem Solvers: Innovation in STEM Education

Humankind faces unprecedented environmental, social, and economic challenges. There is a critical need for STEM education to foster both science learning and the application of learning to problem solving. At the University of Utah, Professor Nancy Butler Songer and her collaborators have developed a suite of interdisciplinary instructional and field-based data collection resources offering elementary and secondary students the chance to create solutions for local, urban environmental issues.

Author/Presenter

Nancy Butler Songer

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2021
Short Description

Humankind faces unprecedented environmental, social, and economic challenges. There is a critical need for STEM education to foster both science learning and the application of learning to problem solving. At the University of Utah, Professor Nancy Butler Songer and her collaborators have developed a suite of interdisciplinary instructional and field-based data collection resources offering elementary and secondary students the chance to create solutions for local, urban environmental issues.

Teaching Earth and Environmental Science using Model-Evidence Link Diagrams

High-quality science education is essential for students to become scientifically literate. Model-Evidence Link (MEL) diagrams and build-a-MEL (baMEL) diagrams are instructional scaffolds that create an opportunity for students to build scientific understanding through the evaluation of the connections between evidence and alternative explanations of a scientific phenomenon. The MELs and baMELs allow for a natural incorporation of three-dimensional learning that has been recommended by the Next Generation Science Standards to enhance students’ comprehension.

Author/Presenter

Erin Colfax

Ananya M. Matewos

Janelle M. Bailey

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2020
Short Description

High-quality science education is essential for students to become scientifically literate. Model-Evidence Link (MEL) diagrams and build-a-MEL (baMEL) diagrams are instructional scaffolds that create an opportunity for students to build scientific understanding through the evaluation of the connections between evidence and alternative explanations of a scientific phenomenon. The MELs and baMELs allow for a natural incorporation of three-dimensional learning that has been recommended by the Next Generation Science Standards to enhance students’ comprehension. Through this science teaching methodology, students are able to see that by diagramming and then writing about one’s thoughts about the connections between evidence and explanations, one can deepen their understanding of scientific concepts.

Using Climate Models to Learn About Global Climate Change

Bhattacharya, D., Chandler, M., Carroll-Steward, K., & Forbes, C.T. (2020). Using climate models to learn about global climate change. The Science Teacher, 88(1), 58-66.

Author/Presenter

Devarati Bhattacharya

Kimberly Carroll Steward

Mark Chandler

Cory Forbes

Year
2020
Short Description

This article focuses on investigating the phenomenon of increasing surface air temperatures using a global climate modeling approach.

Using Climate Models to Learn About Global Climate Change

Bhattacharya, D., Chandler, M., Carroll-Steward, K., & Forbes, C.T. (2020). Using climate models to learn about global climate change. The Science Teacher, 88(1), 58-66.

Author/Presenter

Devarati Bhattacharya

Kimberly Carroll Steward

Mark Chandler

Cory Forbes

Year
2020
Short Description

This article focuses on investigating the phenomenon of increasing surface air temperatures using a global climate modeling approach.