Climate Change Education: What Works?
NOAA Climate Stewards welcomed Dr. Martha Monroe, Professor of Environmental Education at the University of Florida, School of Forest Resources and Conservation as their featured speaker for a webinar in September 2017.
A variety of resources are available to help educators design climate change units and lessons for their students. Which strategies are most effective will depend more on the goal of the lessons than the ability of the students. Our recent systematic literature review identified 49 research papers that reported effective strategies for teaching about climate change. The resulting themes suggest that elementary through university students can increase climate science knowledge with relevant, meaningful, and experiential exercises - but most science teachers know that. Climate change is challenging because of the controversial and value-laden issues and misperceptions that swirl around it. Some of the research papers used community projects and deliberative discussions to help students deeply understand the issues and build skills for working toward solutions. This presentation will briefly explain the review process and focus on the key themes that might help educators emphasize valuable and effective strategies in their climate change programs.