Teaching anthropogenic global climate change (AGCC) using climate models

Abstract

Geography educators have long taught anthropogenic global climate change (AGCC) using geospatial data, visualizations, analysis tools and models. We examined the attitudes of teachers at secondary schools, research institutions, colleges and universities tasked with teaching using one such technology. We designed a seventeen-question online survey about the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) Educational Global Climate Model (EdGCM) that was completed by 115 respondents. Researchers and educators at more than 150 research and educational institutions internationally have utilized EdGCM since 2005. There are numerous reasons why teaching AGCC with a global climate model (GCM) is attractive, and this study examined the successes and challenges teachers confront when implementing such educational technologies. Those in our sample provided insight into what methods and approaches proved effective in reinforcing conceptual understandings of the geographic processes that shape the Earth system. Our findings show educators are willing to use complex scientific models in their classroom but prefer those that enable genuine student research. We also found that more easily accessible online technologies pose fewer technical challenges and often are preferred by teachers to more complex climate education technologies.