Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN)

1. Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) Tamara Shapiro Ledley, Marian Grogan, Jeffrey Lockwood, Candace Dunlap, TERC, Cambridge, MA Susan Buhr, Anne U. Gold, Susan E. Lynds, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), CU Boulder, CO Cathryn A. Manduca, Sean Fox, Karin B. Kirk Science Education Resource Center (SERC), Carleton College, Northfield, MN Frank Niepold,National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) cleanet.org Review Process Teaching Climate and Energy Science What does the CLEAN website offer? A rigorous and transparent peer-review process is used to build the CLEAN collection. The steps in this process include: Identification of teaching materials 2. Formal Triage/Vetting 3. Reviews For each of the Climate Literacy and Energy Literacy Principles, a dedicated page on the CLEAN website summarizes the relevant scientific concepts and provides a detailed discussion of what makes the topic important, and why it can be challenging to teach. Grade-level specific teaching strategies are provided along with links to relevant teaching materials and reference materials. The CLEAN website hosts a on-line collection of teaching materials in climate and energy science, appropriate for grades 6-16. The collection currently contains 580+ vetted educational resources including classroom activities, lab demonstrations, visualizations, videos, and modules/units. Resources are organized by the Climate Literacy Essential Principles, and aligned with the AAAS Project 2061 Benchmarks for Science Literacyand the NAAEE Excellence in Environmental Education Guidelines. Alignment with the Next Generation Science Standards is coming. Supporting the resource collection, the CLEAN website also includes guidance for teaching climate literacy and energy awareness, maps of climate and energy concepts, and archived recordings from our 2011-2012 professional development webinars and workshops. A team of educators searches educational websites to find existing digital teaching resources that are a) relevant to the climate and energy literacy principles, b) of appropriate granularity, and c) for the appropriate grade level. Any teaching resource that seems relevant to the collection, with a promising pedagogic design and seemingly solid science, is entered in a review tool for further consideration by the review team. General Reviews:These include criteria for a) scientific accuracy, b) pedagogic effectiveness, and c) technical quality/ease of use. Two general reviews are conducted for each resource, with the reviewers providing an overall qualitative assessment. Panel Review:Resources that pass the two general reviews are presented to a panel review. This team of four specialists (educators and scientists)discusses each resource, based on the prior reviews, and makes final decision about inclusion in the CLEAN collection. Expert Science Review:Climate and energy science encompasses a wide range of disciplines exceeding the scientific expertise of the CLEAN team. Therefore an expert science review is conducted for resources that pass the panel review. CLEAN Collection Two examples of “Teaching Climate and Energy” Pages on the CLEAN Website (cleanet.org). Search the Collection Catalog Record Bringing CLEAN Resources to Your Website Would visitors to your website benefit from direct access to CLEAN resources? CLEAN Widget: Embed access to CLEAN's collection of resources directly into your website. Example: National Center for Science Education. CLEAN Syndication: Integrate CLEAN into your resource collections by harvesting our metadata. Example: NOAA’s Climate.gov-Teaching Climate. Maintenance Review: To ensure the ongoing quality of the collection a maintenance review process has been developed that includes checking 1) the scientific accuracy of resources that address cutting edge science, 2) that links lead to intended sites, 3) that videos and software used in resources are current and functional, and 4) CLEAN catalog record accurately reflects the resource. Maps of Climate and Energy Concepts . To help educators explore how climate and energy topics can be organized into a logical scope and sequence, the CLEAN website includes concept maps that visually connect CLEAN resources with relevant benchmarks from the AAAS Project 2061 Benchmarks for Science Literacy. These maps can also be used to plan lessons around climate and energy science. Accessing the maps in the CLEAN collection is easy. CLEAN Search Links: Embed urls for focused searches in CLEAN in your web site. This brings up an up to date CLEAN search page with relevant resources. Example: Alliance for Climate Education. Collection search option: Open text search – grade level – resource type – Climate Literacy Principles Energy Literacy Principles – Use of Scientific Data – Regional Focus – Topic areas Benchmarks of Science Literacy – Guidelines for Excellence in Environmental Sciences From each Teaching Climate and Energy Web Page From the CLEAN description of each Resource This work is currently supported by the National Science Foundation under grants # 0937941, #0938020, #0938051 and by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under grants NA12OAR4310143 and NA12OAR4310142 . Example map that shows the climate- related concepts for the high school benchmark “The Earth”