Climate Program Office
Communications and Education Program
Climate Literacy: What's New
A guide is now available to help individuals of all ages understand how climate influences them and how they influence climate. "Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science" is a product of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (GCRP) and was compiled by an interagency group, led by NOAA. The release of the guide coincided with the National Science Teachers Association’s 2009 National Conference in New Orleans, LA.
The Climate Literacy guide supports the development of formal and informal educational materials about climate science plus professional development opportunities for educators. In the document, eight principles and a host of supporting concepts list information for individuals and communities to know about Earth’s climate. Statements include information about the impacts of climate change as well as possible approaches to adaptation or mitigation. Developers of the guide intend to integrate the framework into national and state education standards, and to support teacher workshops to ensure that educators are proficient in teaching the concepts of climate science.
Development of the guide began at a workshop sponsored by NOAA and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Multiple science agencies, several non-governmental organizations, and numerous individuals contributed to the final document through extensive review and comment periods.
To download this guide and related documents, visit:
www.globalchange.gov or www.climate.noaa.gov/education
For print copies of the guide, e-mail NOAA Outreach or call 301-713-1208.
Activities
The Communications and Education (CommEd) Program takes an audience-focused approach to promoting climate science literacy among the public. The program communicates the challenges, processes, and results of NOAA-supported climate science through stories and data visualizations on the Web and in popular media. They provide information to a range of audiences to enhance society's ability to plan and respond to climate variability and change.
As part of a broad NOAA effort, the CommEd team is working to design, test, and develop a Web portal that will provide ready access to climate data and information resources. The portal will feature customized interfaces for four audiences: scientists and sectoral data users, policy leaders, educators and students, and the public. The portal will deliver climate science content that is free, readily accessible, and easily understandable, provided in flexible formats that maximize its usefulness.
The CommEd Program is also involved in efforts to develop climate education strategies that are aligned with national education standards, and to develop and conduct professional development programs that promote teaching of these standards. The programs serve educators, docents, television meteorologists, and other climate communicators, to increase their climate science knowledge and improve their effectiveness in promoting climate literacy.
Data Visualization
NOAA collects climate data at many scales of time and space—from networks of stationary observing stations across Earth's land, ocean, and ice surfaces to missions carried out by ships, aircraft, and Earth-observing satellites. Researchers also generate computer simulations of the climate system. Working with NOAA's climate experts, the Communications and Education Program produces visualizations of such data. Images and animations of these data illustrate and enrich climate scientist's understanding of the climate system, and are easy to comprehend for non-scientists. Throughout the Communications and Education Program, visualizations complement text information to maximize understanding for all audiences.
Climate Education Plan
NOAA recognizes environmental literacy as an integral part of its mission: its 2009 - 2014 Strategic Plan states that "[the success of its] mission is dependent upon an informed public..." and "NOAA's success depends on the ability of our constituents to understand, use, and act upon the information provided [by NOAA]." An environmentally literate public will provide improved environmental stewardship for our planet and will be better able to acquire, use, and respond to NOAA's climate services and forecasts.
Toward that goal, the Communications and Education Program has taken the lead in a community-wide effort to develop a vetted list of concepts that individuals should know and understand about Earth's climate. The resulting document - Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science - serves as a framework for building understanding and communicating about climate science. The guide's intent is to promote climate science literacy among the public. Points in the guide can serve as discussion starters for individuals and communities or a list of topics for in-depth study. The guide also serves educators by drawing connections between climate science and learning standards set by their district or state.
Climate Education within the Context of Science Education
The Climate Education Working Group, one of the four education working groups that address NOAA's crosscutting goals, is responsible for identifying strategies to fulfill the environmental literacy priority of NOAA's climate mission goal. Education groups are charged with facilitating climate education efforts in formal education as well as informal settings. Additionally, NOAA's climate education programs are tasked with coordinating efforts between educational product developers and groups responsible for establishing educational standards. Climate programs must overcome significant barriers to influence formal educational curricula; these barriers exist because current educational standards do not adequately cover Earth system science concepts. NOAA's education programs must also incorporate strategic approaches to environmental literacy, recognizing the multi-generational, long-term nature of change in public attitudes and actions.
