T247 Climate Literacy: Formal and Informal Education and Outreach Efforts to Increase Awareness and Enable Responsible Decisions

Tuesday, 21 October 2014
1:00 PM - 5:00 PM
217/218

EDUCATOR ENERGY LITERACY PRACTICES AND NEEDS AS DRAWN FROM THE CLIMATE LITERACY AND ENERGY AWARENESS NETWORK COLLECTION PROJECT

Paper number: T247-9
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 2:55 PM – 3:10 PM

Authors

Abstract

Today’s students are increasingly aware of climate change and the relationship between climate change, energy use, and sustainability. Scientific knowledge about these topics is advancing at a rapid pace, and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) include performance expectations about energy, sustainability and climate. Educational resources to help develop student knowledge at the nexus of these fast-moving fields topics must be credible, relevant, and up-to-date. The Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) collection team implemented three surveys of more than 200 educators grades 6-16, including questions about their teaching practices and needs around energy awareness, solutions to issues, and societal aspects of climate and energy science. This presentation will present results from those studies, describe areas of the NGSS which are pertinent for energy and sustainability instruction, and present examples of relevant CLEAN peer-reviewed resources.