The goals of the Beyond Weather and Water Cycle project are to increase elementary teachers' understanding of climate and climate change, increase the amount and quality of science taught in elementary classrooms, and build a virtual professional learning community of practice. These goals will be accomplished by contextualizing and adapting existing developmentally-appropriate digital resources including differentiated, engaging informational texts; developing an online climate literacy course for elementary teachers; and utilizing Web 2.0 tools to provide interactive experiences and to facilitate virtual, collaborative professional development. Structured around the seven essential principles of climate literacy, instructional and professional resources will take elementary teachers and their students past the superficial understanding and teaching of weather and the water cycle to a solid understanding of climate. The project leverages the investment that NSF has made with the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears project and continues to make in the educational, social, and technical infrastructures of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) by using NSDL-funded projects (especially CLEAN - the NSDL Climate Literacy Pathway project), tools, systems, and partnerships as a means to multiply project impact. This project is creative in its integration of science and literacy and innovative, transformative, and Earth-friendly in its use of Web 2.0 tools to provide e-education opportunities and facilitate virtual, collaborative professional development.
Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle is an online professional development magazine which focuses on preparing elementary teachers to teach climate science concepts while also integrating inquiry-based science and literacy instruction. The project draws on research showing that an integrated approach can improve student achievement in science, as well as in reading comprehension and oral and written discourse abilities. Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle is modeled on an award-winning NSF-funded project Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears: Integrating Literacy and Science in K-5 Classrooms. Structured around the seven essential principles of climate literacy (U.S. Climate Change Science Program, 2009), instructional and professional resources take elementary teachers and their students past the superficial understanding and teaching of weather and the water cycle to a solid understanding of climate. An interdisciplinary approach fosters an understanding of Earth (and its climate) as a system of interconnected parts. By improving elementary teachers' understanding of climate science and change through an Earth systems approach, we are effectively preparing our youngest students to study and shape climate policy in the future. Specifically, the project’s goals were to (1) increase elementary teachers’ understanding of climate and climate change, (2) increase the amount and quality of science taught in elementary classrooms, and (3) increase professional collaboration by providing interactive experiences; promoting creation, modification, and sharing of resources; and facilitating collaborative professional development around climate and climate change. These goals were accomplished by contextualizing and adapting existing developmentally-appropriate digital resources delivered through an online magazine format including differentiated, engaging informational texts and developing a blended climate literacy course for elementary teachers. Archived web seminars and a blended online course provided additional support for teachers as they learned about climate science and best practices on implementing the resources into their classroom. The online magazine continues to be maintained and a facilitator’s guide will be available on the website so that others can take the materials and create their own professional development experience for teachers. Evaluation results from the courses "BWWC: Integrating Science and Literacy in K-6 Classrooms" taught in the Summer of 2012 and "BWWC: Connecting Climate Science and Inquiry" taught in the Summer of 2013 both held at The Ohio State University; teacher and grades 3-5 student questionnaires and content knowledge assessments, and a review of the Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle resources indicate: >>Teachers’ understanding of science concepts increased from the beginning to the end of the courses. >>Teachers’ reported a better understanding of science concepts after being exposed to several types of resources (i.e., both course readings and videos) related to each concept. >>Teachers who struggled to understand certain concepts expressed empathy toward the struggles of their students. More importantly, this empathy seemed to influence future teaching styles of the teacher participants. >>Grade 3-5 student content knowledge of concepts foundational to understanding of climate science was improved. >>The greatest improvements in teacher content knowledge were related to teachers developing students’ conceptual understanding, engaging students in reflection about their learning, and presenting intellectually rigorous lessons.
