Session Announcement and Call for Abstracts
Climate Literacy and Communication Strategies
American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting
San Francisco, California
15-19 December 2008
Abstract Submission Deadline: Wednesday, 10 September 2008
For further information, please go to:
http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm08/?content=search&show=detail&sessid=449
Or contact:
Mark S. McCaffrey
Email: mark.mccaffrey [at] colorado.edu
Papers are invited for Session ED11: "Climate Literacy and Communication
Strategies" to be convened at the AGU Fall Meeting, 15-19 December 2008,
in San Francisco, California.
Session Description:
During the International Geophysical Year in 1958, the US National
Academy of Sciences described in the pioneering science education
publication "Planet Earth: Mystery with 100,000 Clues" that the natural
greenhouse effect was being altered because "our industrial civilization
has been pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at a great rate" and
that if it remained "it would have a marked warming effect on the
earth's climate" and could "cause significant melting of the great
ice caps and raise sea levels in time." Over the past fifty years, with
few exceptions, science education has made little headway in effectively
informing and educating students and citizens about the basics of the
climate system in general and human impacts in particular. With the
release of the Climate Literacy framework of essential principles and
fundamental concepts, the formation of the Climate Literacy Network and
numerous formal and informal education and information programs and
campaigns, the tide may be turning.
This session will examine the urgent need and current efforts to
identify high quality education materials, best practices and effective
information sharing and communication strategies related to climate
variability and change, looking at education and communication research
relating to how people learn and make informed decisions including their
prior knowledge, ideological filters, and misconceptions, examining
deficit knowledge theory as it relates to climate related science,
policy and advocacy. We encourage papers be submitted that focus on
classroom pedagogical content knowledge curricula, free choice and
community-based education programs, efforts to engage and inform
underrepresented audiences, and other traditional and emerging
communication mediums that relate to science-based climate, energy
and/or sustainability topics.
The abstract submission deadline is Wednesday, 10 September 2008, at
11:59 p.m. Universal Time. To submit an abstract, please go to:
http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm08/?content=program
For further information about this session, please go to:
http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm08/?content=search&show=detail&sessid=449
Or contact the session convenors:
Mark S. McCaffrey
Email: mark.mccaffrey [at] colorado.edu
Susan M. Buhr
Email: susan.buhr [at] colorado.edu
Frank Niepold
Email: frank.niepold [at] noaa.gov