Wednesday, June 3: 9-10am
Seigle Hall, Room 304

What should every student know about climate science (and Earth science, in general) and who gets to decide? In this CERP3 seminar, Michael Wysession, PhD., Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, draws upon his firsthand experience coauthoring the national K-12 Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS — adopted by 45 states) to look at the past, present, and future of teaching Earth science in high school and how this impacts what we teach at WashU. Michael examines how competing influences for K-12 science standards over the past 150 years and the variations in state-level politics about climate change impact national efforts to establish a shared baseline of scientific knowledge about climate and climate change, which, in turn, determines what we teach in our WashU climate courses. The historical lack of high school Earth science has been a large obstacle to national climate science literacy. There is good news, however.  The NGSS have a substantial number of climate-related performance expectations in both middle and high school, and curricular program, modules, and textbooks nationwide are adapting to teaching rigorous and quantitative climate science at greater levels, even in adjacent courses such as chemistry and biology.