On April 26, the College of Sciences and Mathematics hosted a symposium titled, “Global Climate Change in Education.” The symposium was the culmination of a program funded by NASA that began with the development of three learning modules that have since been incorporated into grades 9 to 12 biology, chemistry and physics classrooms across Alabama. By the time implementation is complete, potentially over 200,000 students will have had the opportunity to delve into the science of global climate change.

Click here for a video about the symposium

The aim of the program is to improve both high school and public knowledge about climate change issues, and the symposium was another step towards that goal. The success of the program resulted from a unique partnership between Auburn University and the Alabama Science in Motion, or ASIM, program, which is funded by the Alabama State Department of Education.

Present at the symposium were all three critical components of the four-year effort: teacher fellows, ASIM specialists from all 11 in-service districts across the state, and faculty from Auburn University. Also attending were other teachers working with the fellows, faculty and students from colleges across the university, and members of the public.

The symposium featured five climate change experts from across the country, each of whom gave a presentation in their area of expertise and participated in an open panel discussion. Each expert has been integrally involved in research or dissemination of scientific approaches to global climate change issues. One is a teacher, one from academia, and three are with NASA backgrounds. They are: Peter Griffith, chief support scientist of NASA’s Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Office; Berry Lyons, director of the School of Earth Sciences at Ohio State University; Jorge Vazquez, scientist for Sea Surface Salinity, Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center; Greg Craven, a high school physics and chemistry teacher from Oregon; and Gavin Schmidt, a climate modeler for the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. For more information, visit the website at https://fp.auburn.edu/asim/GCCE.