Personal temperature monitoring to build context for climate justice and community decisions.
Summary
Learning Goals
- Students will explore environmental factors that impact temperatures on a hike
- Students will reflect on hiker factors that impact whether a hike is enjoyable
- Students will reflect on why it is central to consider science and community together for climate justice.
- Students will analyze trends on graphs
Other skills goals: graphing, climate communication strategies
Context for Use
Introductory Course
This activity works in introductory courses for non-science majors. It is a good fit for geoscience, environmental science, social and environmental justice, sustainability, and other courses that seek to highlight how human outcomes are improved by joining science and human understanding.
Skills and concepts students should have mastered
No previous experience is required, but this might be a good activity after introducing concepts of weather and climate and before engaging in deepened exploration of local climate change impacts and solutions
How the activity is situated in the course
I typically use this as a starting place activity for research in collaboration with the community especially on issues of environmental justice that disproportionately impact populations that are often left out of planning conversations (e.g. heat island, storm water, food access gardens). This activity helps cultivate awareness that both science and human experiences should inform community decisions. Our best work as scientists is done when we consider diverse experiences and not just environmental trends. Follow-up activities introduce community-based participatory research and students co-design projects that serve community outcomes informed by local perspectives.
Description and Teaching Materials
Below are two activities that meet learning goals. The first can be completed without any additional instrumentation. The second requires a PocketLab™ Weather
National Parks Personal Temperature Experience (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 65.7MB Jun20 19) (stand alone activity that uses PocketLab(TM) Weather data)
ClimateJustice.pptx (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 179kB Jun20 19) (requires a PocketLab™ Weather or other personal temperature monitor).
National Park Personal Temperature Data (Excel 2.8MB Feb17 20) (Additional PocketLab™ temperature data from National Parks for follow-up graphing or other analyses).
Teaching Notes and Tips
References and Resources
EPA, Learn about environmental justice NCSE, Teaching climate change: best practices SERC, Teaching with data SERC, Environmental Justice in the context of sustainability
* This activity was made possible by the Faculty Development Board & Wittenberg University.
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