Preface

Summer, 2019

Dear Reader, Educator, Contributor and the Curious,

In the early 2000’s the University of Washington gathered many vested in the interdisciplinary climate education of graduate students under the umbrella of the Program on Climate Change (UWPCC).  Over time UW scientists and graduate students associated with the UW PCC developed partnerships with teachers, and since 2010 have been co-creating teaching materials based on the current state of knowledge in climate science, climate communication, and societal needs.  Teachers across the planet need teaching materials that can be readily accessed and a means to connect with others using these materials.  Here we offer our works to the educational community, with a creative commons copyright to encourage adaptation while maintaining attribution to the original developer.  In this way we hope to contribute to more equitable classroom opportunities.

Who are our authors?  Some are faculty members at the University of Washington with deep expertise in a climate related topic.  Most are graduate students passionate about broadening understanding in the science and in solutions to the climate challenges that are here now.  Many are fulfilling the capstone requirements of our Graduate Certificate in Climate Science, an addition to their PhD or Masters Programs.  These students take coursework that spans disciplinary boundaries of climate science, seminars in current research and science communication, and design capstone projects that bring a new understanding of climate science to their chosen audience.

We, the compilation editors, envision this to be a living lab manual.  As we are able to upload and format labs for this work, we will make them publicly available.  Visit the pcc.uw.edu education section for a list of materials we are working to share here.

We invite constructive feedback and expect to add and update the compilation as long as the UW PCC community continues to create.

Miriam and Surabhi

Seattle, Washington

Miriam is an Oceanographer and Assistant Director of the UW Program on Climate Change (UWPCC).  She has worked with graduate students in curriculum development since 2010.

Surabhi is an undergraduate student at the University of Washington studying Atmospheric Sciences and Earth and Space Sciences with a focus on climate.  She is currently the undergraduate assistant for the UW PCC and enjoys envisioning how the materials being incorporated in this book could be made most useful in the classroom.

Read more about the development of the program in this EOS article published in February 2019: https://eos.org/project-updates/preparing-graduate-students-for-21st-century-climate-conversations