Innovative ways of integrating global change education in K-12 classrooms

摘要

Here in Alaska, we are breaking new ground in science education -- by engag ing K-12 students in global environmental change research, scaffolding their local studies with the knowledge and observations of Native elders and other community experts,and using standards-based science and math best practices to support the teaching and learning processes. Our three-year project on "Global Change Education Using Western Science and Native Observations", recently funded by the National Science Foundation, has enabled us to start reach ing students in urban Alaska and in rural Alaska, where there are more than 200 remote communities. To do this we first had to reach out to school teachers--by sending out flyers and application forms for the first two-week summer institute of the project, "Observing Locally, Connecting Globally" (OLCG). We informed and invited teachers using regular mail, email, list-serves and phone calls. We were gratified to have a tremendous response within Alaska, and from outsideAlaska including Canada, Norway and Russia. This program had apparently attracted a lot of interest. A particular area of interest was the opportunity for students to participate in original research, in order to spark creative thinking using concrete simple observations, to work on scientific problems and conduct research on issues in their everyday lives. As one teacher remarked "Environmental studies, especially at the grassroots level, is a way to make science relevant to the students".