Sustainable Practices

NSCP 6430 Climate Literacy: Essential Principles for Teachers

This course counts as 1 GRTE credit; see below for information on scholarships for Colorado teachers.

Course Format

Online: Term-based

Course Description

This course will serve educators seeking knowledge about our scientific understanding of Earth’s climate, historical climate change, and recent climate change. Class participants will also explore pedagogical approaches for teaching about climate. Classroom teachers and informal educators are equally welcome. Previous students include staff members from the National Park Service and from Sea Grant.

Students should be prepared to commit 25 to 30 hours of time to the course, meet weekly deadlines, and produce a final project related to integrating climate knowledge into your educational work.

After course completion, students will be able to:

• Understand concepts underlying each of the 7 Essential Principles of Climate Literacy.

• Recognize ways teachers can integrate Essential Principles of Climate Literacy to their existing curricula.

• Understand common misconceptions about climate and climate change and ways to help students overcome them.

Instructor Biography

This course will be taught by CU-Boulder Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) Education Outreach staff. For more information on CIRES Education Outreach, please visit http://cires.colorado.edu/education/.

Course Text

Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Sciences, published by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, is provided to course participants at no charge.

Scholarships for Colorado Teachers

All Colorado middle school and high school teachers are eligible for an 80% scholarship. Recipients agree to include their final curriculum plan projects in an online repository of climate literacy curricula. The repository will be a crucial part of CU efforts to provide teachers everywhere with a base of resources to help them systematically weave scientifically sound climate literacy into their curricula. Tuition for the course is $225; Colorado teachers with scholarships will pay only $45.

Scholarship application (PDF)