Confronting the Challenges of Climate Literacy

A Summer Workshop for High School Teachers

Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS

Monday June 17-Friday June 21, 2013

Understanding the complexity and interconnectedness of Earth's natural cycles across various time and spatial scales has become increasingly important as the effects of human activity on those cycles become more apparent. Join us for a week at Mississippi State University to learn about three new high school curriculum units* that address these topics and how you can incorporate them into your science classes. The new Web-based curriculum units will be freely available to you and are designed to enhance classroom learning by allowing students to explore the topics in a variety of modes, including hands-on activities, video interviews with scientists, group work, self-guided examination of scientific data, and class discussions.

Participants who complete the workshop will receive 4 CEU's from Mississippi State University and a stipend.
Accommodations and two meals daily (breakfast and lunch) will be provided at no cost to participants.
Mississippi teachers can also apply for a transportation subsidy (max. $250).

Space is limited to 25. High School teachers have first priority

CLICK HERE to complete and submit an application.We are no longer accepting applications

Questions? Call Dr. Karen McNeal at Mississippi State University (1-662-268-1032)

E-mail: ksm163@msstate.edu

**Climate and the Cryosphere: Earth's Frozen Waters*

How do Earth's glaciers, ice bergs, and ice sheets affect Mississippi's climate? The complexity of Earth's interconnected system is highlighted in this unit as students learn about the cryosphere's dynamic nature and the positive and negative feedback systems that play a critical role in shaping our planet's climate.

**Climate, Weather, and the Biosphere*

Earth's atmosphere not only provides us with life-supporting oxygen; it helps maintain our planet's temperature range, which shapes life on Earth as we know it. Students learn about various temporal and spatial scales at which weather and climate occur, and the interactions of the Earth's system at local, regional, and global scales that drive our weather and shape our climate.

**Climate and the Carbon Cycle*

Carbon cycles through the Earth system on time scales that vary from fractions of a second to hundreds of thousands of years, and is as essential to the phytoplankton as it is to the Giant Sequoia. Air bubbles from ice cores reveal the dynamic history of atmospheric carbon across the past 600,000 years and help scientists establish the long-term history of the carbon-climate connection.

To visit the archive of e-mails that have been sent to participants with workshop details, CLICK HERE

Notes and Resources From the Mississippi Workshop: June, 2013

Click here (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 84kB Jun14 13) to download information about participating in the EarthLabs Research Implementation during the 2013-2014 school year.

Climate Literacy Essential Principles ( This site may be offline. )

EarthSystem_Intro.pptx (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 10.9MB May28 13) is a slide show you can use to introduce your students to the Earth System. Use the notes in the word document EarthSystem_Intro_NOTES.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 166kB May28 13) to add information as you show the slides.

Find a large collection of vetted, web-based , freely available resources related to climate and energy at the CLEAN web site

This wind map (more info) is interesting to study.

The Earth Exploration Toolbook website provides detailed instruction for learning about computer-based tools used to analyze data. Use the search function to find resources related to ImageJ, Google Earth and many other tools.

This link to Steve Kluge's web site is a good resource for learning more about Google Earth and other Earth science tools and topics.

The slide shown Global Circulation.pptx (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 2.9MB May28 13) addresses both atmospheric and oceanic circulation and explains the Coriolis effect.

Find a large collection of vetted, web-based , freely available resources related to climate and energy at the CLEAN web site

Check the Skeptical Science web site.

NOAA's time history of atmospheric CO2

NASA's Perpetual Ocean video showing surface circulation.

Iceland slide show showed by Tamara Ledley Iceland slides (PowerPoint 44.1MB Jun21 13)

Some Interesting Apps

Apple Apps

EarthViewer
EarthNow
NOAA Now
NASA Visualization Explorer
Topo Maps