This award will fund a workshop to bring together media and education specialists with environmental scientists to discuss new ways to engage the public and further their understanding of environmental issues. The focus is on complex system thinking and how to communicate better the notion of nonlinear dynamics, tipping points and catastrophic change in coupled natural-human systems. A special emphasis is finding ways to improve informal education regarding the impacts of climate change. This workshop represents a first step towards defining new ways to attract public interest and improve their understanding of complex environmental problems. It brings together different groups of people (media, education and environmental science) in an appropriate venue to stimulate transformational thinking on the use of web-based technology for informal environmental science education. The workshop combines two compelling aspects: the learning potential of simulation and gaming software that can be made widely accessible over the internet; and the concept of surprise within complex dynamical systems. The participants will include expertise from both of these areas. The workshop is expected to broadly impact informal science education and environmental science literacy. There is also the potential that this interdisciplinary meeting will catalyze new collaborations across the environmental science, media science and education communities. The workshop will include 25-30 participants and be held at the Exploratorium, which is a science museum in San Francisco.
