Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Teachers reveal rampant alarmism

Help me build a skeptical climate education portal

To support this project please donate here:
https://www.gofundme.com/climate-change-debate-education

Students and teachers need skeptical science and we plan to deliver it.

There are many on-line sources of alarmist climate change education materials but none for the realistic skeptical view. A recent poll says that many teachers want to teach about the real climate debate, not just the alarmist side. But skeptical teaching materials are scarce, so we propose to build a climate change debate education website, with your help.


My latest research: Teacher testimonials reveal rampant alarmism
http://www.cfact.org/2017/07/03/teacher-testimonials-reveal-rampant-alarmism/

Climate alarmism is being taught as early as 7th grade, in non-science subjects as diverse as Civics, English, Art and Math.

Hence: Join the Fight for Skepticism in Schools
http://blog.heartland.org/2017/06/join-the-fight-for-skepticism-in-schools/

You can help. https://www.gofundme.com/climate-change-debate-education

David

Monday, July 3, 2017

Three articles on climate debate education

Help me build a skeptical climate education portal

To support this project please donate here:
https://www.gofundme.com/climate-change-debate-education

Students and teachers need skeptical science and we plan to deliver it.

There are many on-line sources of alarmist climate change education materials but none for the realistic skeptical view. A recent poll says that many teachers want to teach about the real climate debate, not just the alarmist side. But skeptical teaching materials are scarce, so we propose to build a climate change debate education website, with your help.


Join the Fight for Skepticism in Schools
By David Wojick, Heartland Institute, June 16, 2017
http://blog.heartland.org/2017/06/join-the-fight-for-skepticism-in-schools/
 
Left-wing newspapers lamenting student and parent skepticism? Good news!
By David Wojick, CFACT, June 15, 2017
http://www.cfact.org/2017/06/15/left-wing-newspapers-lamenting-student-and-parent-skepticism-good-news/

Teachers teaching climate skepticism? More good news!
By David Wojick, CFACT, June 19, 2017
http://www.cfact.org/2017/06/19/teachers-want-to-teach-climate-skepticism-more-good-news/

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Bringing Balance to Climate Science Education - a strategic plan


by David Wojick, Ph.D.


Please donate!

Introduction

The purpose of this project is to help bring some balance to the teaching of climate science, especially in grades K-12, but also in college. There are presently a lot of websites offering one-sided classroom materials teaching the dogma of dangerous human induced climate change. That this science is highly debatable is nowhere to be seen.

Our project will establish a website portal that collects and distributes materials to teach about the climate debate. Once established and given sufficient funding we will also produce new teaching materials. The long term goal is to build a collection that systematically addresses all of the important issues at the appropriate grade levels. Our target audience is not just teachers, but parents, friends of students and the students themselves.

Lack of balance

Both the Federal government and many green advocacy groups maintain websites that distribute climate teaching materials. These materials teach that dangerous human induced climate change is settled science, which is far from true.

For example, the CLEAN website is funded jointly by NOAA, NSF and DOE. CLEAN stands for Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network. In fact "climate literacy" is code for the false belief that humans are causing dangerous climate change. CLEAN says it has over 600 free, ready to use resources suitable for use in secondary and higher education classrooms. They also boast that they are the core of the Teaching Climate part of the Climate.gov website. This is Government bias targeting children.

One of the key principles of CLEAN's version of climate literacy is explained thus: "A great challenge of the 21st century will be to prepare communities to adapt to climate change while reducing human impacts on the climate system (known as mitigation)." CLEAN also says "Because the primary cause of recent global climate change is human, the solutions are also within the human domain."

All of CLEAN's teaching materials are biased and based on this false premise. The reality is that dangerous human influence on climate is completely unproven and the subject of intense scientific debate. That only the scary side is being presented as settled science is a severe lack of balance.


Creating balance in climate science education

The first step toward creating balance in climate education is to provide teaching materials that properly present the scientific debate as it actually is. This is best done with a simple website. We propose a phased approach to this effort. First an implementation phase then, if funding is available, a production phase.

Implementation phase

Initially there are six tasks to be done, to create a useful website, as follows.

1. Call for materials. We will put out a call for teaching materials. We know that some exist already and others may well be created as a result of our call. This will give us a starter set for the website. We will use the existing network of blogs, list servers, twitter feeds, etc., that question the doctrine of dangerous human induced climate change.

2. Collect materials. We will work with authors to make sure that the collected materials are suitable for classroom use, especially non-political.

3. Construction. The education community features simple websites, many of which are constructed by the teachers and their students. Ours too will be very simple, hence inexpensive. We propose to use a database driven, document management format, along the lines of scholarly journals. This means that the website does not have to be changed when new documents are added. There is a home page, some out-links and a search box that produces relevant document lists. There are virtually no maintenance costs.

4. Process collected materials for the website. We will develop content for the website that provides an introduction to the debate, as well as describing each of the available teaching materials. We will also have the customary link list, with links to the numerous websites where the science is debated.

5. Create model materials. We will create a few examples to guide new authors.

6. Promotion. There are numerous channels available for promoting the website at low cost. These range from blogs to the science teacher associations found in many states. It is quite possible that our website will become controversial, which will help to promote awareness of it. The initial call for materials may itself generate controversy.



Production phase

Here the goal is to recruit and guide volunteers who will produce highly targeted teaching materials. In particular, there is a need for simple, yet well designed, lesson plans that teach a specific scientific issue to a specific grade level.

These lesson plans need to be tailored to the state standards, which typically dictate what topics are taught in which grades. DOE's Office of Scientific and Technical Information has funded extensive research by us on this sort of tailoring. These results are available through our STEM Education Center, whose motto is "write it so they can read it."

There are numerous specific scientific issues that need to be taught at different grade levels. Each potential lesson needs to be simple and compact, designed to fit into the mandated curriculum. Moreover, each lesson must stand alone, because teaching time is limited.

Getting around the gatekeepers

We will also develop short, handout types of materials as a way to get around what we call the gatekeepers. Gatekeepers are doctrinaire people who make it hard to get balance into the classroom. It may be the principal, the teacher's supervisor or even the teacher.

Our handouts will be something that a parent or student can bring to class. It is normal for the brighter students to bring supplementary materials to class, especially when the topic is controversial. In the case of climate change, surveys have also shown that parents often become involved. As with the lesson plans, these handouts will be highly focused, nonpolitical, and tailored to a specific grade level. Since they will be online they can easily be emailed as well. Thus the gatekeepers cannot prevent their distribution.

Target audiences

There are three distinct target audiences -- teachers, parents and students. Teachers need lesson plans, which are relatively specialized documents. Students need materials written at their grade level. Parents need information that they can explain to their children or use to confront a gatekeeper. Of course teachers and non-parents can use this information as well. The website will be organized in such a way that each group can find what they need.


It is important to keep in mind that many K-12 science teachers do not have science degrees, nor do most parents. K-12 is not the place to go into the technical details of climate science. Simplicity is the key.



Thursday, May 18, 2017

33 alarmist climate change teaching material collections online

Help me build a skeptical climate education portal

To support this project please donate here:
https://www.gofundme.com/climate-change-debate-education

Students and teachers need skeptical science and we plan to deliver it.

There are many on-line sources of alarmist climate change education materials but none for the realistic skeptical view. A recent poll says that many teachers want to teach about the real climate debate, not just the alarmist side. But skeptical teaching materials are scarce, so we propose to build a climate change debate education website, with your help.



A partial listing by David Wojick

Skeptical teaching material collections online

None known. Let's build one!

Here is the project:
https://www.gofundme.com/climate-change-debate-education


Alarmist teaching material collections online

Federal or federally funded

1. Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN).
"A collection of 650+ free, ready-to-use resources rigorously reviewed by educators and scientists. Suitable for secondary through higher education classrooms." CLEAN is funded by grants from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.

2. US Global Change Research Program "Resources for Educators."

3. NOAA's "Teaching Climate."

4. "Going Green! - Middle Schoolers Out to Save the World" is funded by NSF.

5. NASA's "Global Climate Change - Vital Signs of the Planet"

6. The National Ocean Service's "Talking to Children about Climate Change."

7. "Teaching about Climate Change" from Carlton College, sponsored by NSF

8. "Climate Change Live" with many federal "partners".

9. NASA's "Climate Kids."

10. "Climate Change Activities" from UCAR, sponsored by NSF.

11. "Climate and Global Change" by the National Earth Science Teachers Association, sponsored by NASA and NOAA.

12. "Climate Change Education" by Stanford's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, funded by NASA.

13. "Climate Change" from AAAS, sponsored by NSF.

14. "TEACHER RESOURCES" from the Alliance for Climate Education, includes OSTP, NOAA and EPA as "Partners."

15. "Climate Change and Human Health Lesson Plans" by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH.


Not known to be federally funded (a few of many)

1. "Climate Change 101" (video) with Bill Nye | National Geographic

2. "There is no Planet B" by Teach Climate Change

3. "Classroom Resources" from the National Center for Science Education

4. "Climate Science Resources" from the National Science Teachers Association

5. "Climate Change" from Practical Action

6. "Climate Change Resources" from the National Wildlife Federation

 7. "Cornell Climate Change" from Cornell (sponsors unknown).

8. "Teaching About Climate Change With The New York Times" by The Learning Network.

9. "Climate Change - Student Resources" from Lehigh University's Environmental Initiative. http://www.ei.lehigh.edu/learners/cc/

10. "Climate Change Education: Essential Information for Educators" from the National Education Association. http://www.nea.org/home/65564.htm

11. "Climate Change" from the University of California, Berkeley's Global Systems Science. http://www.globalsystemsscience.org/studentbooks/cc

12. "Climate Change" by KQED Science

13. "Activities for Responding to global climate change" by the Nuffield Foundation.

14. "Climate Change" from BP Educational Service (an oil company!)

15. "Climate Change Lesson Plans: Exploring the Evidence" by Michigan State's W. K. Kellogg Biological Station. https://www.kbs.msu.edu/2017/02/climate-plans-k-12/

16. "Educators' Resource Corner: Climate Change" from the Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education. http://eeinwisconsin.org/resource/about.aspx?s=93380.0.0.2209

17. "Education Resources" from Southern Oregon Climate Action Now.

18. Climate Change Education.Org -- web portal

Just a sample

Note: EPA's vast array of alarmist edu content is still there. Officially, EPA's climate change material has been withdrawn, but it is still readily available from the EPA website, as follows. EPA's main education page is still there -- "Lesson Plans, Teacher Guides and Online Resources for Educators."

https://www.epa.gov/students/lesson-plans-teacher-guides-and-online-resources-educators

On this page there are links to various topics. There is a specific button for "Climate Change" which still works. Using it to go to the EPA climate change education website one finds this notice:

"Thank you for your interest in this topic. We are currently updating our website to reflect EPA's priorities under the leadership of President Trump and Administrator Pruitt. If you're looking for an archived version of this page, you can find it on the January 19 snapshot [link]." Clicking on the snapshot link takes one to this page:


https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climatechange_.html

It has a banner saying: "This is not the current EPA website. To navigate to the current EPA website, please go to www.epa.gov. This website is historical material reflecting the EPA website as it existed on January 19, 2017. This website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work."

But this page leads to an extensive website full of alarmist teaching materials, which are still readily available and easy to find.