This award to the US National Academy of Engineering establishes a Phase I Climate Change Education Partnership (CCEP) in collaboration with Arizona State University, Museum of Science-Boston, University of Virginia, Colorado School of Mines, and the Phoenix Union High School District. The overall goal of CCEP Phase I is to establish a coordinated national network of regionally- or thematically-based partnerships devoted to increasing the adoption of effective, high quality educational programs and resources related to the science of climate change and its impacts. This award focuses on the impacts of climate change for engineered systems. The goal is to catalyze and transform engineering education in K-12, science museums, and undergraduate engineering departments to prepare current and future engineers, policymakers, and the public to meet these challenges.
In coming decades, climate change and society's responses to it will require enormous transformation of the nation's technological infrastructure. Current US education falls short of preparing the country for this challenge. Educational platforms must focus on the multiple, complex interactions between engineered systems and the Earth's climate system. At the same time, transformation raises societal challenges, including trade-offs among benefits, costs, and risks, and opportunities for building public trust, confidence, and engagement. New education must integrate technical and normative learning, knowledge, and skills, in formal and informal educational venues.
This partnership will develop a comprehensive vision focused on three themes: (1) climate impacts on engineered systems and their adaptation; (2) changes in engineered systems required to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions; and (3) the creation of novel technological systems to engineer the Earth's climate system. Cutting across themes, it will examine challenges of: (1) governance; (2) justice; (3) sustainability; and (4) public engagement and trust. It will reach out to engineering professional societies, educators and deans, K-12, informal science institutions, industry, non-governmental organizations, media, and policymakers. Working with the Phoenix Union High School District, whose 25,000 students are 78% Hispanic, 10% African American, and 3.2% Native American, allows the Partnership to devise appealing programs for students of diverse backgrounds.
Phase I involves working groups organized by theme and target audience. One or more content working groups focus on developing an inventory of climate education materials integrating technical and normative education. By the end of Phase I, the Partnership will have marshaled a broad network of stakeholders from the target audiences and submitted a proposal to NSF for Phase II. It will have published and disseminated material from the three thematic meetings, as well as results from the project working groups, so content and approaches needed to initiate new formal and informal educational efforts are widely available. More information on this project is available at www.nae.edu/21302.aspx, or by contacting the PI, Rachelle Hollander at rhollander@nae.edu.
Intellectual Merit: In September 2010, the Center for Engineering, Ethics, and Society (CEES) at the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) began working with four other partners on a Climate Change Educational Partnership Phase I planning grant on "Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society" from the National Science Foundation. The four partners were the Consortium on Science Policy Outcomes (CSPO) at Arizona State University, the Boston Museum of Science, the Colorado School of Mines, and the University of Virginia. Societies develop engineered systems to address or mediate climate-related problems, such as drought, sea-level rise, flooding, or wildfire control; the mediation involves public trust, public engagement, and governance. In these efforts, societies also decide - intentionally or implicitly - questions of justice and sustainability, such as what areas will receive mediation measures, what types of measures will be used, and what levels and kinds of local impacts are tolerated. Thus, educational and policy activities need to examine the implications of technical options for these questions as decisions are being made. The project focused on defining and characterizing the societal and pedagogical challenges posed by the interactions of climate change, engineered systems and society, and identifying the ways in which formal and informal educational efforts could enable engineers, teachers, students, policymakers, and the public to meet the challenges. The project also aimed to build awareness of the complexities among a diverse set of communities affected by climate change and engineered systems and to engage the communities in addressing these challenges. The partnership convened three workshops over the course of the grant on the interactions of climate change with engineered systems in society and the educational efforts needed to address them. The first workshop provided the partners with an introduction to the varied social and technical dimensions found in the relationships among climate, engineered systems, and society. The second workshop built on the common language developed in the first. It allowed the partners to expand involvement in the project to include representatives from community and tribal colleges, professional societies and business. It examined the opportunities and challenges for formal and informal education particularly in engineering classrooms and science museums, to prepare students and citizens to address these issues. The third workshop allowed the partners to broaden further the discussion and the audience. It solicited participation from government officials, Native American tribal representatives, professional society leaders, as well as educators, artists, scientists, and engineers who are developing programs that can manage change and educate students and citizens in ways that foster their leadership skills. Broader Impacts: Results from the workshops and other project activities include a book and two videos, several articles, and graduate student and postdoctoral training. The NAE and CSPO publicized the results broadly through their mailing lists and publications. Posted to the National Academies Press website on August 28, 2014 the book has been downloaded 1,734 times by September 17, 2014. Readers’ comments indicate it is being used in research and educational activities, and in practice at federal, county and city agencies. Project assessments indicate that the investigators and project participants gained knowledge and skills from project activities and results. The NAP publication contains a summary evaluation of the workshop events, and the final report to NSF contains an attachment with the evaluation that examines strengths and weaknesses in the development of the partnership over the course of the grant. It indicates that a stronger focus and delineation of partners' responsibilities would serve future project efforts well. Overall, project results provide useful resources to engineers, educators, corporate leaders, local and regional officials, members of professional societies, and others in their efforts to understand and address the challenges of climate change and its societal impacts in engineered systems. The NAE/CEES project site - www.nae.edu/Projects/CEES/57196/35146.aspx and the Online Ethics Center website – www.onlineethics.org – contain information and materials produced during the project and links to the book and videos. You can view the videos through the CEES project page above or the OEC at www.onlineethics.org/Topics/Enviro/Climate/ClimateOther/28257.aspx The Center for Engineering, Ethics, and Society at the NAE mailing list contains 662 people who received announcements about the videos and book. CEES also notified ASEE, APPE, 4S, Koshland Science Museum, TrACE, NCAnet, and the Association of Science and Technology Centers.
