Teaching About Climate Change

Climate change.

It seems everyone these days has an opinion or an interest in the matter. It's even the question of whether climate change is a debatable subject seems like an object of debate. The questions are not simply, is it happening or not, but do the scientists even agree, and these often detract from the overriding question of what are we to do?

As science teachers, the question "what are we to do" resonates in a different way altogether. The topic of climate change crops up in the K-12 curriculum at different places, and many teachers, wanting to be mindful of the many different public perspectives, are unsure of how far they can go in their teaching of climate change concepts.

Perhaps in recognition of just how much has changed since even the introduction of the new Science 10 curriculum in 2003, the Alberta Government, in conjunction with the Lethbridge Environment Week Committee, has developed Climate Change: Creating Solutions for Our Future to assist teachers in the matter. The document not only provides teachers and students with resources of study, but also creates the groundwork for a consistent dialogue across the province. To download the document, click here.