Download Climate Change

Physics Education
Research:
Climate Change the big questions
Professor Chris King,
Director, the Earth Science Education Unit
www.earthscienceeducation.com
Climate change – the ‘big educational questions’
General questions
• As you sit here – how might you be contributing to
climate change?
• How might the things you have been doing today
contribute to climate change?
Climate change – the ‘big educational questions’
General questions
• As you sit here – how might you be contributing to
climate change?
• How might the things you have been doing today
contribute to climate change?
• Discuss these questions with your neighbour
Climate change – the ‘big educational questions’
General questions
• As you sit here – how might you be contributing to
climate change?
• Using energy – lights, air conditioning
• Breathing CO2 into the atmosphere
• The albedo of the building – pale, reflecting light
• How might the things you have been doing today
contribute to climate change?
Using fuel – journey to work
Using electricity – uses mainly non-renewable fuel
Consuming material – made using fuel
Consuming meat – from animals that generate methane
Consuming vegetables, corn, fruit - from agriculture that
has changed the environment
• Your home has changed the local albedo
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Climate change – the ‘big educational questions’
Physics questions
• How can the contributions that humans might be
making to climate change be measured?
• How can the impacts of these contributions on
climate change be monitored?
Climate change – the ‘big educational questions’
Physics questions
• How can the contributions that humans might be
making to climate change be measured?
• How can the impacts of these contributions on
climate change be monitored?
Discuss these questions with your neighbour
Climate change – the ‘big educational questions’
Physics questions
• How can the contributions that humans might be
making to climate change be measured?
• measure heat emissions
• measure CO2 emissions
• measure surface reflectivity (albedo)
• use satellite imagery to monitor environmental change
• How can the impacts of these contributions on
climate change be monitored?
• measure the global temperature
• measure the thickness of ice sheets
• measure the height of sea level
• measure the power of storms
Climate change – the ‘big educational questions’
Physics education questions
• How could you devise classroom activities to
mirror these measurements and monitoring
studies?
• How could you evaluate the effectiveness of
these activities and the educational strategies in
which they are embedded?
Climate change – the ‘big educational questions’
Physics education questions
• How could you devise classroom activities to
mirror these measurements and monitoring
studies?
• How could you evaluate the effectiveness of
these activities and the educational strategies in
which they are embedded?
Discuss these questions with your neighbour
Climate change – the ‘big educational questions’
Physics education questions
• How could you devise classroom activities to
mirror these measurements and monitoring
studies?
• measure the albedo of different surfaces in the lab
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simulate the melting of sea and continental ice and
observe the effects
compare Google Earth images from some time ago with
those from today to detect differences
do a ‘thought experiment’ on the issues around
measuring sea level
consider how spectroscopy could be used to measure
CO2 content of the atmosphere
How could you evaluate the effectiveness of
these activities and the educational strategies in
which they are embedded?
Climate change – the ‘big educational questions’
Physics education questions
• How could you evaluate the effectiveness of these
activities and the educational strategies in which
they are embedded?
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Questionnaire/interview - teachers
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Questionnaire/interview - students
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Are teachers confident in teaching the materials, do they
find them useful, interesting, fun to teach, educationally
valuable?
Do the materials lead to pupil engagement/interest?
Do the students enjoy them?
Do they encourage students to consider physics as a career?
Do students feel confident in explaining them and their
importance?
Test/examination - students
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Do students know the concepts?
Do students understand the concepts?
Can they apply the concepts to new situations?
Climate change – the ‘big educational questions’
Physics and physics education questions
• How could physics contribute to a reduction in
climate change?
• How could these strategies be mirrored in the
classroom?
Discuss these questions with your neighbour
Climate change – the ‘big educational questions’
Physics and physics education questions
• How could physics contribute to a reduction in
climate change?
• development of renewable energy sources
• increasing efficiency of fuel sources, both renewable
and non-renewable
• ‘geo-engineering’ – eg. the development of an Earth sun
shield
• How could these strategies be mirrored in the
classroom?
• test lab-sized models of renewable energy sources for
effectiveness and efficiency
• simulate and test ‘geo-engineering’ ideas
Climate change – the ‘big educational questions’
All this thinking is another way of saying:
•
‘What are the ‘big ideas’ of physics that focus on climate
change issues?
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How should we teach about these ideas to pupils and
students?
•
What impact do we want this teaching to have on
pupils/students?
•
How can we evaluate this impact?
Climate change – the ‘big educational questions’
All this thinking is another way of saying:
•
‘What are the ‘big ideas’ of physics that focus on climate
change issues?
•
How should we teach about these ideas to pupils and
students?
•
What impact do we want this teaching to have on
pupils/students?
•
How can we evaluate this impact?
Discuss these questions with your neighbour
… then return to your institution and implement the ideas!
Physics Education
Research:
Climate Change the big questions
Earth Science Education Unit
www.earthscienceeducation.com
© The Earth Science Education Unit
Copyright is waived for original material contained herein if it is required for use within the
laboratory or classroom. Copyright material included from other publishers rests with them.