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Becca Walker: Teaching Climate of Change in an Introductory Oceanography Course for Nonscience Majors at Mt. San Antonio College, CA
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OCEA10 provides an introduction to the ocean environment, including geological, chemical, physical, and biological oceanography topics. Students are told to be prepared to work hard and use their brain! This is not a marine biology course. The course covers marine biology briefly, but the majority of the course focus is geology, chemistry, and physics.
Increase your understanding of the geology, chemistry, physics, and biology of the oceans.
Understand how Southern California's proximity to the ocean influences its weather, economy, natural hazards, and the lives of its residents.
Investigate how Earth's oceans, atmosphere, and glaciers influence one another, how these parts of the Earth system are changing, and how past and present civilizations have adapted to climate variability and climate change.
Become comfortable making qualitative and quantitative observations.
Gain familiarity reading and interpreting maps, photographs, crosssections, graphs, and other data.
Become aware of the impact that your actions have on the marine environment.
Learn to think critically and solve problems without being told the answer.
Experience the workload and performance level required for success at a four-year school.
Understand the concept of accountability as it applies to success in higher education.
Find out that you are capable of doing well in and enjoying a science class, even if you are "scared of science" or believe that you are "not a science person" (whatever that means!).
Course Content
This is an introductory course that satisfies the physical science General Education requirement for transfer to a UC or Cal State school. The majority of students in this course are non-science majors and enrolled to satisfy their GE requirement.
Course description taken from my syllabus:
Even though the majority of Earth's surface is covered by seawater, the average person is less aware of what is happening in the ocean than what is happening on land. In this course, we will work together to answer several fundamental questions:
Which factors control life in the ocean?
How do we know what we know about the ocean?
What is at the bottom of the ocean?
How does the water in the ocean move?
How are human activities and climate change altering the ocean?
A Success Story in Building Student Engagement
I teach introductory courses primarily for nonscience majors at a community college and wanted to change how I taught climate change. Before working with the InTeGrate project, climate change instruction in my oceanography course was limited to lecture and perhaps a bit of class discussion, which usually turned into a political debate. Using units 1, 2.1, 3.1, 4.1, 5.1, and 6 of the InTeGrate Climate of Change module allowed my students to interpret real ocean, atmosphere, and ice data; consider the uncertainty and complexity inherent in the climate system and in predicting future changes; explore how ancient and modern societies have adapted to climate fluctuations; and work collaboratively to tackle qualitative and quantitative problems related to the climate system.
The use of authentic atmospheric, ocean, ice, and sociological data was an effective way to allow students to draw their own conclusions about climate change and get them thinking about uncertainty and complexity in climate science...
My Experience Teaching with InTeGrate Materials
Using the Climate of Change module in a lecture-only course allowed me to implement a wide variety of teaching strategies that were effective in promoting engagement. The students were accustomed to an interactive classroom, but expanding to the range of activity types in the module kept the students motivated for the next class and led to broader and more thoughtful participation.
Becca discusses how she used the Climate of Change module in her course. Molly Kent, Carleton College Download Becca Walker(MP4 Video 7.2MB)Details
Relationship of InTeGrate Materials to My Course
I implemented the module in a 6-week class starting at the end of week 4. In the 4 weeks of class prior to starting the module, the following topics were covered: origin of the geosphere/hydrosphere/atmosphere, latitude and longitude, history of oceanography, instruments used in oceanography research, evidence for continental drift, Earth structure, evidence for plate tectonics, plate tectonics, marine provinces, marine sediments, properties of seawater, deep ocean circulation, primary productivity and marine food webs, waves, surface currents, coastal features, and the rocky intertidal zone. Students were also responsible for ~75 geographic and physiographic features and are quizzed on these features weekly. The class met for 2 hours and 20 minutes--generally, class meetings were roughly 50% lecture and 50% in-class exercises; hence, my students were accustomed to small-group activities and discussions by the time we got to the Climate of Change module.
Because of the nature of the course (lecture only; not all students enrolled in a lab section), I knew that there would not be enough time to implement the module in its entirety. Specifically, I did not use any of the supplemental case studies (2.2, 3.2, 4.2, and 5.2) in this course.
In the tips and suggestions section for each unit, you will see references to:
preparation exercises: these are short assignments that students were given prior to completing a particular unit
modified exercises: because of the nature of my course and student population, I made various modifications to the Climate of Change instructional materials.
The preparation exercises and modified exercises that I used are here.
Unit 1:
I spent 1 hour of class time on Unit 1, including a brief lecture on the differences between weather and climate and the differences between climate variability and climate change; the gallery walk and report out; and a discussion about positive and negative feedback. The gallery walk and "report out" took 40 minutes.
I spent 20 minutes reviewing Unit 1 topics during a subsequent class meeting.
Prerequisite knowledge/preparation:
It is imperative that students have carefully read the Unit 1 article before coming to class.
Common areas of confusion/struggle:
You may need to do some prompting during the gallery walk if student answers are not sufficiently detailed. As the gallery walk progresses, a group might get to a question and find that all of their ideas have already been written by other groups. In this case, you may encourage them to elaborate on what is already written.
I didn't see any students taking notes during or after the gallery walk unless I wrote notes on the board. If this is the case in your course, you may want to provide a record of the gallery walk for study purposes. One simple way would be photographing the gallery walk papers and giving students electronic copies. That way, they are responsible for deciding which responses are the most important.
I recommend reviewing the concept of feedback with your students. Some of my students initially associated positive feedback as "good" and negative feedback as "bad." In my case, I gave students a preparation exercise for Unit 2 that included a feedback question (in a nutshell, come up with an example of a nongeoscience feedback loop, diagram it, and classify it as positive or negative feedback) and reviewed feedback at the beginning of the next class meeting.
Other tips, suggestions, and observations:
Refer to SERC's instructions for conducting a gallery walk. After the report out, discuss some of the questions from the Unit 1 teaching notes as a class if you wish. Wrap up by introducing the concept of feedback. If students are already familiar with greenhouse gases, you could provide an example of positive and negative feedbacks resulting from increased atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Unit 2
Time needed:
I spent 2 hours and 15 minutes of class time on case study 2.1, including an introduction to the TAO/Triton array, discussion of the concept of an anomaly using a SST/wind plot, small group work with SST/wind and precipitation plots (note that I did not include the pressure plots), a whole class discussion comparing ENSO neutral and ENSO positive (El Niño) phases based on the results of the small-group work, and an interactive lecture on the societal impacts of El Niño.
I spent 20 minutes reviewing ENSO neutral and ENSO positive phases during a subsequent class meeting.
Prerequisite knowledge/preparation:
familiarity with general atmospheric circulation.
concept of anomaly.
experience reading and interpreting contour lines.
Common areas of confusion/struggle:
Anomalies were challenging, but most students understood the general concept because they completed the preparation exercise. When talking to students in their groups, most students interpreted the plots more accurately and quickly if I used "unusually warm water" instead of "positive anomaly," and "unusually cool water" instead of "negative anomaly." I verbally substituted "rainier than normal" for a positive precipitation anomaly, and "less rain than normal" for a negative precipitation anomaly and got similar results. I also found that students used color terminology frequently. For example, when students with precipitation data were asked which year was least anomalous and why, their answer to "why" was "this plot has the most white on it, and white means no anomaly."
Students kept forgetting which were the average plots and which were the anomaly plots.
Students forgot about the trades as the prevailing winds at these latitudes and essentially neglected to think about the winds.
Students may struggle with the wind anomalies. Initially, I attributed this to my students' lack of experience with vectors, but when I tested Case Study 2.1 with a group of faculty, they had similar difficulties. Wind anomalies are very difficult!
Some students got confused with the longitudes on the plots, namely, that the west side of the map is 140E, and the east side of the map is 110W.
Students were frustrated that the data did not reveal to them why the anomalies were observed.
Students kept asking me if I had "better data."
Other tips, suggestions, and observations:
Divide students into groups of two to four. Each group receives either SST/wind plots or precipitation plots. After students are finished with their data, they combine with students who analyzed the other data set.
Once all groups have finished, reconvene as a class and lead a discussion summarizing what they've discovered about the data. To facilitate this discussion in my class, I labeled the left side of the white board "normal" and the right side "anomalous". On each side of the board, I included a blank map of the equatorial Pacific (it was actually just a rectangle with a blob for New Guinea on the west side and a blob for South America on the east side) and a schematic block diagram (side view) of the tropical Pacific and asked students to walk me through how SST, precipitation, and air pressure patterns "normally" look. I introduced the terminology "ENSO" and labeled these diagrams as the ENSO neutral phase. Next, I asked them which year(s) of data looked particularly anomalous to them. I introduced the terminology "ENSO positive" and "El Niño" and showed some PowerPoint slides depicting societal implications of El Nino. I did not have time for Hovmöller diagrams when I tested the module, but if time allows, these diagrams could be used during this portion of class.
Unit 3
Time needed:
I spent 1 hour of class time on Case Study 3.1, including small-group work with exercise 3.1 and a wrap-up of ENSO.
Prerequisite knowledge/preparation:
Completed Case Study 2.1.
Exposure to atmospheric circulation patterns, surface ocean currents, and coastal upwelling.
Common areas of confusion/struggle:
Some students were insecure about coloring on their maps. It may be beneficial to mention to students that not everyone's map will look identical and that the maps are schematic.
Other tips, suggestions, and observations:
To transition from Case Study 2.1 to 3.1, ask students to predict what will happen to the trade winds during an ENSO negative phase. Students may work individually, in pairs, or in small groups.
Unit 4
Time needed:
I spent 2 hours of class time on Case Study 4.1, including an introductory lecture/discussion to the study area, brainstorming about albedo variation, small-group work on exercise 4.1, and a whole-class discussion summarizing the results and implications of what they had worked on in groups.
Prerequisite knowledge/preparation:
Visual representation of Greenland glaciers and glacial processes, including scale, location, and movement of marine-terminating outlet glaciers, and calving.
Give some thought to how albedo might vary annually.
Common areas of confusion/struggle:
Students may have the misconception that all glaciers look white. My students were surprised by the photograph of the brown surface of the ice sheet in June.
My students seemed to think that Greenland has no topography. The introductory slides on the study area were useful in addressing this misconception.
Students found it difficult to pinpoint specific dates because of the way that the X axes of the albedo plots are calibrated.
Other tips, suggestions, and observations:
Begin with an interactive lecture to introduce the study area and have students brainstorm about the factors that could influence albedo in a particular area and how scientists could study changes in the Greenland ice sheet. Each group of students analyzes albedo data from a particular elevation, then meets with students with data from a different elevation. Once students have completed Case Study 4.1, reconvene as a class to summarize the results and implications of their analysis of the albedo data.
Unit 5
Time needed:
I spent 1 hour and 15 minutes of class time on Case Study 5.1, including an introductory lecture/discussion about modeling, small-group work on exercise 5.1; and a whole-class discussion summarizing the results and implications of what they had worked on in groups.
Prerequisite knowledge/preparation:
understanding of feedbacks.
familiarity with his/her climate role.
Common areas of confusion/struggle:
Your students may not be familiar with the concept of modeling. In my case, I provided a nonscientific example of a model and ran simulations using a nongeologic example. The example that I used is something that students in Los Angeles are very familiar with: driving time. I drew a house on the board and labeled it "my house," a building on the other side of the board to represent campus, and a dashed arrow between my house and campus labeled "commute distance = 22 miles." Next, I asked students whether or not my commute time took the same amount of time every morning, and they responded no. I asked them which factors could potentially influence my commute time and started scribbling their responses (I cut them off at 20; flow of traffic, interaction with police, stoplights, DUI checkpoints, car trouble, fallen trees, construction, time of day, and speed driven are a few examples) on the board. Then, I asked them what would happen to my commute time if the following happened. We used this analogy as an explanation of what climate modelers do and discussed whether or not all of the models agree, whether or not they all yield the same result, and whether they are correct or speculative.
One straightforward scenario in which all of the conditions would lead to a longer commute time. They agreed that my commute time would be longer.
One straightforward scenario in which all of the conditions would lead to a shorter commute time. They agreed that my commute time would be shorter.
One scenario in which some of the conditions would lead to a shorter commute time and some of the conditions would lead to a longer commute time. They said that they could not predict exactly what would happen to my commute time.
Students may be confused about what to do on the model programming worksheet. I gave each group a concise verbal explanation as I walked around the classroom (in the future, I would do this one time for the entire class): "You are the greenhouse gas table. I need you to think about what would happen to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere if all of these different parts of the Earth system changed. For example, what would happen to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere if the human population of Earth increased? What would happen to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere if the human population of Earth decreased? If you encounter anything that could cause greenhouse gases to go either way or you don't know how greenhouse gases would be influenced, make notes on that." This explanation seemed to satisfy every table.
Your students may have a hard time with the ambiguous aspects of their modeling. For example, the clouds and precipitation group may have a difficult time deciding what will happen to air temperature with changes in clouds and precipitation. You may encourage your students to make notes about possible outcomes.
Other tips, suggestions, and observations:
Introduce the concept of climate modeling using an interactive lecture/discussion. Place all students with the same climate role (example: all students with greenhouse gases) in groups and give them time to complete the model programming sheet. Once students have completed the model programming sheet, divide students up into teams so that each team has a representative from each climate role (i.e., a greenhouse gas representative, a glacier representative, etc.). Instruct students to run the climate scenario that they received over a specified timescale. Reconvene as a class and ask each team to describe their model's output.
I made substantial modifications to the climate role sheets. You may choose to use the original climate role sheets on the Unit 5 page, my modified climate role sheets, or your own version. I added a vegetation climate role, eliminated the tectonics and human population climate roles, and removed most of the figures on the original climate role sheets.
You will need to choose how many climate scenarios you would like students to consider. Several climate scenarios are provided on the Unit 5 page. In my case, half of the groups got the climate scenario in which Earth's temperature has increased by 5C, and the other half of the groups got the climate scenario in which Earth's temperature has decreased by 5C.
You will need to choose how many times you would like to run the model and over which timescales. I chose to run the model twice and instructed students to consider results over 100 years and again after 500 years.
For your own organizational purposes and sanity, it would be useful to assign each student to a team before starting this exercise to make sure that each team has representation from each climate role.
Unit 6
Time needed:
I spent 1 hour and 15 minutes of class time on Unit 6, including a discussion about attitudes about climate changed based on the survey results, lecture/discussion about adaptation vs. mitigation to climate change, and completion of the Unit 6 gallery walk on climate change adaptation strategies.
Prerequisite knowledge/preparation:
Students should take the climate personality quiz online before coming to class.
Depending on your time constraints, you may choose to give students the gallery walk readings in advance or as they begin the gallery walk.
Other tips, suggestions, and observations:
Compile student results of the climate personality quiz to determine the class percentage of alarmed, concerned, cautious, doubtful, disengaged, and dismissive climate opinions. Compare the class data to the national data, and discuss/propose reasons for differences between the class and national data.
Refer to SERC's instructions for conducting a gallery walk.
Assessments
Unit 1:
The discussion on feedbacks at the end of the class meeting was interesting. When we had finished both feedback loops, I asked if there were any questions or comments. Here is what I got (and not from the students who are the usual verbal participants!):
Student: "But does that mean that the Earth is warming or cooling? In both feedbacks, there is more CO2 in the atmosphere, but you get warmer in one and colder in the other."
Another student, before I had a chance to respond: "It depends on where you are. The positive feedback happened in a place with ice, and the negative feedback happened in a place that was warmer to begin with."
Another student: "It just seems like there are so many different things happening in the system at the same time."
Another student: "Doesn't that mean that there's positive and negative feedback happening at the same time?"
Another student: "Then which one wins?"
I used this discussion to explain that climate modeling is extremely complex and that I hoped today had whet their appetites to learn about climate fluctuations in the equatorial Pacific and the North Atlantic next week.
I used the following Unit 1-related exam question (from our embedded assessments): Sketch and label a feedback diagram associated with increasing the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Indicate on the diagram if the feedback from increasing carbon dioxide is positive or negative. Explain the importance of feedbacks in understanding uncertainties in projections of future climate. Student responses to this question allowed me to identify misconceptions about feedbacks (for example, belief that positive feedback happens only at high latitudes and negative feedback happens only at low latitudes) and resulted in changes in the way I taught about feedback in subsequent iterations of module implementation.
Unit 2:
I used the following Unit 2-related exam question (from our embedded assessments): Does the ocean surface anomaly map display El Niño, ENSO normal, or La Niña conditions and how do you know? Where will precipitation fall if these anomalous temperatures remain in place? While some students incorrectly identified the map as illustrating ENSO normal conditions, the majority of students selected El Niño and correctly characterized the expected precipitation patterns.
During class, my students were able to identify which year was most anomalous and describe what the anomaly looked like with respect to SST and precipitation in the western and eastern Pacific. They offered the following during the postactivity discussion without being prompted:
Warm SST seems to correlate with greater rainfall (they followed up by attributing this to areas with relative warm SST having low pressure systems).
Cooler SST seems to correlate with less rainfall (they followed up by attributing this to areas with relative cool SST having high pressure systems).
The most anomalous years are 1997 and 1998 (they speculated that this could be an El Niño event and wondered if the Mayans died off because of El Niño).
Unit 3:
During class, students' color maps accurately characterized SST and precipitation differences between ENSO normal, positive, and negative conditions in the equatorial Pacific. Students also made accurate predictions about productivity variations in the eastern Pacific during ENSO normal, positive, and negative conditions.
Unit 4:
I used questions 1 and 2 from the Unit 4 assessments on my final exam.
During class, students demonstrated an understanding of how to read and interpret an albedo plot and an albedo anomaly map.
Unit 5:
I used the following Unit 5-related exam question (from our embedded assessments): Humans have the power to affect climate change by: A. decreasing the amount of incoming solar radiation, which causes cooling. B. increasing the amount of incoming solar radiation, which causes warming. C. adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, which cause warming. D. adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, which cause cooling. E. no possible means. 87% of students answered the question correctly.
At the end of the game, I asked each team to tell me what their model predicted about how global temperature would change after 500 years. 5 out of 6 tables predicted global warming, and five out of six tables predicted global cooling. Each group provided feedback-based justifications for their predictions.
Unit 6:
During class, students provided thoughtful responses to the gallery walk questions.
During class, I used question 2 from the Unit 6 assessments and found that students were able to distinguish between mitigation and adaptation strategies.
Outcomes
Using the Climate of Change materials has had a tremendous impact on the way that I teach about the climate system. One of the most effective characteristics of the module was the variety of teaching strategies (gallery walks, discussions, small-group work, modified jigsaw activities, games, etc.) utilized. This kept my students interested in what they were going to learn during their next class meeting and how they were going to learn it. The use of authentic atmospheric, ocean, ice, and sociological data was an effective way to allow students to draw their own conclusions about climate change and get them thinking about uncertainty and complexity in climate science. Since initial testing of the Climate of Change module, I have continued to incorporate parts of the module into my courses.
These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate.
The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues.
The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including:
general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science,
social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs. Explore the Collection »
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