Strategies, methods and data supporting science teachers to deal with teaching climate change in secondary schools

Abstract

<p><span>T</span><span>he need </span><span>to provide young citizens with the necessary skills to understand the causes of climate change is a common agreement among science communities and society. </span><span>It is important that students acquire the knowledge an</span> <span>competencies </span><span>t</span><span>o be able</span><span> to mitigate greenhouse gases emissions and </span><span>to </span><span>adapt </span><span>themselves</span><span> to the evolution of t</span><span>he earth biotope</span><span>.</span></p><p> </p><p><span>O</span><span>ur team has developed v</span><span>arious</span><span> tracks to initiate pupils an</span><span>d </span><span>students </span><span>to meteorological observations, h</span><span>elp them</span><span> understand the difference between climate and meteorology and finally handle scientific data</span> <span>of climate projections. We propose to build up a strategy </span><span>spreading from primary school to secondary school final year. </span></p><ul><li> <p><span>In primary schools pupils </span><span>are b</span><span>rought</span> <span>from the feeling</span><span>s they have </span><span> “it’s cold… it’s warm… it’s hot...” </span><span>to the measurement of meteorological parameters and the idea that regular measure</span><span>s</span><span> can lead to d</span><span>iscuss</span><span> the </span><span>average temperature in a place at a given date. </span></p> </li> <li> <p><span>Weather stations that acquire regular measurements are installed in </span><span>lower </span><span>secondary schools managed by classes </span><span>to</span><span> contribute to opendata. The schools involved in the project build a collaborative network where s</span><span>tudents</span><span> can approach the concepts of normal seasonal temperature </span><span>and the basis of weather forecast that help introduce the uses of models in meteorology and climatology. The meteorological environment i</span><span>s</span><span> also used to teach coding with </span><span>raspberry Pi </span><span>and meteorological sensors</span><span>.</span></p> </li> <li> <p><span>In higher secondary schools students have reached sufficient maturity to handle climate and climate change concepts. </span></p> <ul><li> <p><span>we provide climate projections data tables derived from computations made in research labs. The tables are simplified to be handled in class with spreadsheets but accurate enough to reconstruct valid figures l</span><span>ike</span><span>those that can be found in IPCC reports. To </span><span>arise student’s interest regional data focused on their living places are used.</span></p> </li> <li> <p><span>we have produced a method to accompany the students in a </span><span>role-play</span><span> imitating </span><span>a</span><span> Cop-Climate. This “EduCopClimate” lasts for a semester used to e</span><span>nter</span><span> the role of COP delegate for a group of countries and concludes by a COP </span><span>s</span><span>ession with</span><span> schools representing </span><span>a</span><span>t least 7 group of countries plus lobbies.</span></p> </li> </ul></li> </ul><p><span>Climate data are complex, not easy to use </span><span>and</span><span> in advanced formats that are not commonly used in schools. </span><span>There is a risk that secondary school teachers may feel that using s</span><span>uch</span><span> data is too complex or too time c</span><span>onsuming</span><span>. It is important to extract easy to use regional </span><span>climate </span><span>data </span><span>projections</span><span> a</span><span>nd make them available to schools. We d</span><span>erive from </span><span>French meteorological service web site 104 x104 km zones, at 8km grid, from 2006 to 2100 with all computations for all meteorological parameters. </span></p>