I teach at Hodgson VoTech in Northern Delaware. Because our school is a VoTech High School we are lucky enough to have on site solar panels and wind turbines to generate emission free electricicty. We also have an on campus wetland to use for the outdoor field experiences. I am not sure yet how best to take advantage of these learning opportunities but I do know they are a valuable resource for environmental education. The alternative power will tie in very nicely with the global warming unit but I am not quite sure how to use the local wetland and tie that into the global issue of climate change.
Steven it sounds like you have a great setup at Hodgson! Now that you know some of your resources, what are some overarching or investigative questions that your students could explore that align with the standards that you will hit?
Hi Steven. I guess the wetland is a good site for investigation that is related to climate change. The wetland ecosystem could be a good indicator of the effects of global warming in the local level. Nice idea.
Steven,
I'm struggling with the MWEE idea as well. Climate change is such a large scale, in both time and geography, that taking kids out for a MWEE to "show" climate change will be difficult.
Michael, you're hitting on a critical point here. Climate change is a very large scale issue. MWEEs are an approach for students to explore an issue/problem/phenomena through problem based learning which includes those four "essential elements" - issue definition, outdoor field experiences, synthesis and conclusions, and action project. I think when you say taking the kids out for a MWEE you're talking about the outdoor field experiences part. In my mind, having students analyze and interpret data during the issue definition and synthesis and conclusion phase can be really helpful in contextualizing any data that you might be collecting during the field experience phase(s). Does that help?
Thanks, Elise. Definitely puts it in perspective.
Steven,
Reading your post reminds me that my students have access to a few renewable energy sites near by. One way I might incorporate these sites are to complete some type of calculation to show how many units of fossil fuels are being saved each year by using the renewable technologies, and then have them discuss how this impacts the carbon cycle, the greenhouse effect, and climate change.
I just discovered this year that my school's roof is covered with solar panels! (I've only been there a year - I think they were installed last year). Anyway, I like your idea of incorporating that tech into a lesson somehow. Maybe the students could compare electricity use data from year to year. Then they could extend that by figuring out ways to reduce the electricity use at the school to make the school's carbon footprint even smaller.