Tuesday, March 6, 2011
4:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Location: Cheyenne Mountain Junior High School
1200 W. Cheyenne Road, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80906

Enjoy a resource rich evening with hands-on activities, simulating discussions on climate change, standards alignment, climate and Energy Literacy Framework
and plenty of take-away teaching materials. This is your opportunity to get up-to-date information and discuss how teaching this material impacts your classroom.

Workshop Presenters

Dr. Stephanie Chasteen, K12 outreach coordinator for Learn More About Climate, PhD physicist and education researcher, University of Colorado Cheryl Manning,Teacher at Evergreen HS Dr. Susan Buhr, Director of Education/Outreach for Cooperative Institute in Research in the Environmental Sciences (CIRES), CU-Boulder Dr. Anne Gold, CIRES Education and Outreach Group, CU-Boulder Dr. Chris Ray, Research Associate, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, CU-Boulder

Meeting Agenda (subject to change as needed)
Time	Activity
4:00 - 4:30	Science Hubs announcements; refreshments; credit; prizes
4:30 - 5:00	Is the climate changing in Colorado?  How would we know? Stephanie Chasteen & Cheryl Manning We will present a problem-based lesson plan where students use data from Colorado's environment to investigate whether the evidence supports the hypothesis that the climate is changing in Colorado.
5:00 - 5:45	Climate and Energy Topics in the Classroom Susan Buhr, Anne Gold, and Cheryl Manning We help address the challenges to teaching these topics (Misconceptions, Controversy, Standard Alignment, Climate and Energy Literacy Framework)
5:45 - 6:00	Break; prizes
6:00 - 7:00	The American Pika, a Model Species for Studying Climate Sensitivity Chris Ray Many species--especially alpine species--are expected to be sensitive to climate change, but many also have ways to adapt.  Movement is an option for many animals, but alpine-adapted species may have difficulty moving through lower elevation habitats to seek better alpine patches.  Another strategy for avoiding effects of climate change is to spend more time in favorable microclimates available locally.  Microclimates can vary dramatically over short distances--especially in the mountains--a feature exploited by the American pika.  The pika is considered a "cold-adapted" species with limited ability to move through warmer regions.  However, pikas persist in some very warm places by taking shelter in cool microhabitats found beneath the surface of boulderfields and other rocky features.  So, the question arises:  Will the pika succumb to global warming, or does its use of favorable microclimates place it among the less vulnerable species?  This question motivates much recent research, summarized in this talk.  Ways to involve classrooms in this topic will be discussed.
7:00 - 7:45	Resources for teaching about climate and energy Susan Buhr and Anne Gold We will show you how to find relevant and high quality teaching resources like lesson plans, videos, visualizations across climate and energy topics and how to use them in your classroom.
7:45- 8:00	Other Resources from CU Stephanie Chasteen We will share the variety of resources on climate from CU, including Learn More About Climate project and a new professional learning community (PLC) for Colorado on climate education.
8:00	Wrap-up

 

Outcomes

Skills Acquired (what teachers will learn to do): Teamwork in group study Analysis of data relating to climate and climate change Learn and use meteorological terminology  Prediction skills in the analysis of the effect of data on climate. Pedagogy on using a problem-based lesson on evidence for climate change in Colorado Finding high quality teaching materials Challenges in teaching about climate and energy and how to navigate them

Content knowledge (what teachers will learn about) The effect of climate change on the mountain pika and Colorado ecology Evidence for climate change in Colorado. Science literacy and the issues that relate to teaching about climate change. Increasing and expanding knowledge of earth and atmospheric processes Knowledge of climate and meteorological vocabulary Misconceptions around climate and energy Climate Literacy Principles, Energy Literacy Principles Framework

Links to Resources:

• Learn More About Climate website:  http://learnmoreaboutclimate.colorado.edu
  
• Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network with lesson plans and resources:  http://cleanet.org/
  
• Inspiring Climate Education Excellence online forums:   http://www.iceeonline.org/forum/
  
• Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences:  http://cires.colorado.edu/education/

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