lightblueline

Mike Taber and Mike Urban have created a great course for teachers to learn about global change (not just climate change!). This is also a great undergrad course in Earth Science on the topic of change.
Global Change: A Data Driven Approach to Learning
You can also email Mike Taber at: mike.taber AT coloradocollege.edu

"This course is designed to provide students with experience in looking at data from Earth. The data tells a story, of which we may have heard in the media and other courses. But, what is global change? Is Global Change the same as Global Warming? What are the implications?

The course is designed to meet the Colorado Content Standards for Earth Science (Standard 4) for teacher preparation and professional development. Emphasis is in understanding the Earth as a system and the interaction of process in the Earth system. In addition, this course is designed to meet Colorado Content Standards for scientific processes (Standard 1). This course requires students to examine data and draw conclusions from that data. An emphasis is placed on communication of results.

Rather than using the phrase "global warming, let's examine Earth as a dynamic, changing Earth. We know that the Earth is not static. Species have evolved and gone extinct. Plates move as part of Earth's lithosphere, generating mountains, volcanoes, and earthquakes.

We will examine some aspects of global change in this course. We will look at how scientists use data for interpretation. We will examine how scientists use models to help us in predicting future global change. And, we will examine the impacts on Earth resulting from Global Change."