Download Box 1 – DataStreme ECS Course Materials

Box 1 – DataStreme ECS Course Materials
DataStreme ECS participants take part in current data-driven, hands-on learning experiences
readily adaptable to the pre-college classroom. Teachers who complete DataStreme ECS training
are positioned to promote climate literacy not only among their students but also with their
colleagues.
DataStreme ECS emphasizes both the dynamical and empirical approaches to climate mentioned
earlier. Each has its own powerful applications. In combination, the two approaches support
explanation, modeling, and prediction of climate and climate change. DataStreme ECS treats
climate from the two complementary perspectives. To this end, DataStreme ECS has five
unifying themes: 1) the scientific foundation of Earth's climate system, 2) how human activities
contribute to climate change with emphasis on global warming, 3) societal and ecological
resilience to climate change, including adaptation and mitigation strategies, 4) public policy and
economic aspects of climate change, and 5) the challenge of achieving sustainable development.
AMS staff scientists and science educators prepare DataStreme ECS course materials, including
the textbook, Investigations Manual with two-per-week, hands-on activities, and a course
website delivering climate data and visualizations, a Weekly Climate News, and Current Climate
Studies investigations. The Current Climate Studies, prepared weekly by AMS Education
Program staff, explore the week’s topic using real-world and, in many cases, near real-time data.
Study participants used the 1st edition of the textbook released in 2010 (Moran 2010). A major
revision of the textbook, and conversion into eBook formatted was completed in summer 2014
(Kauffman 2014). The new eBook, to be used by future DataStreme ECS participants,
incorporates the very latest IPCC, USGCRP, and related reports. An accompanying major update
of the course eInvestigations Manual was also released in summer 2014.
In order to increase climate literacy, DataStreme ECS introduces teachers to the basics of climate
modeling through the interactive AMS Conceptual Climate Energy Model (CCEM) used
throughout the course investigations. The CCEM is a computer simulation, designed in
partnership with the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite
Studies, which lets users track the paths that energy units might follow as they enter, move
through, and exit a planetary climate system according to simple rules applied to different
scenarios. The AMS CCEM explores basic concepts underlying a planet’s perpetual drive
towards attaining and maintaining radiative equilibrium with space. These same fundamental
physical concepts underlie the workings of Earth’s global climate system.
The ECS course visitor’s website is http://www.ametsoc.org/amsedu/ECS/. A course syllabus,
sample course book chapter, Investigations Manual activity, and Current Climate Studies (used
during the study period) are available at www.ametsoc.org/amsedu/ECS/exampleweek.html.