Assessment of Module Goals

Formative and summative assessments for the Module

Goal 1. Students will plot and interpret climate change data and relate interpretations to climate system interactions.

Objectives and Assessments:

• Students will explain the major components of Earth's climate system and interactions.
• Formative: Students will construct a concept map that illustrates the climate system and the interactions between the components.
• Students will assess the connection between human activity, the atmosphere, and climate by creating and interpreting graphs of climate change data.
• Formative: Using graphing software (e.g. Microsoft Excel, Numbers, SPSS), students will use a provided data set to create a graph.
• Formative: After creating a graph, students will write a caption that interprets climate change variables and communicates that interpretation to a non-scientific audience.

Summative: On an exam, students will examine a graph of climate change data and answer several questions linking the data set to climate system interactions. These questions will be either short-answer or multiple-choice style questions, depending on the class size.

Goal 2: Students will rhetorically analyze the treatment of a climate change issue in a work of climate change literature.

Objectives and Assessments:

• Students will distinguish between different types of climate change genre.
• Students will identify climate change concepts represented in different climate change literature.
• Formative: Students will list climate change concepts from one work of climate change literature.
• Formative: Students will provide the context for how the climate change concepts are introduced in one work of climate change literature.
• Students will be able to use literary terminology (protagonist, narrative voice, setting) when writing the rhetorical analysis.
• Formative: In a group, students will identify protagonists, the narrative voice, and the setting for a work of climate change literature.

Summative: Students will create a rhetorical analysis of a self-selected passage from a work of literary fiction, poetry, or film about climate change. Here the students will use what they have learned from Goals 1 and 2 to describe the passage and how climate change concepts are used in the literary work. In a small class, this assessment will be an individual writing assignment. In a large class, this assessment will be completed in small groups through a discussion board setting.

Goal 3. Students will understand the value of both literature and scientific data in communicating the grand societal challenge represented by climate change.

Objectives and Assessments:

• Students will be able to apply the results of the rhetorical analysis and data analysis exercise into a broader climate change communication context.

Summative: Students must explain how the above literary passage and scientific data set effectively communicate the grand societal challenge of climate change to both scientific and non-science audiences.