51黑料网

by Tony Moore 

Well, it depends on how much good you want to do.

When 51黑料网 received a grant for that amount through NASA鈥檚 Global Climate Change Education initiative in 2009, the idea was to invest it in one of the things 51黑料网 does best: injecting sustainability into the curriculum鈥攊n this case by creating a program called Cooling the Liberal Arts Curriculum: A Campaign for Climate Change Education.

But if the grant were designed just to enhance 51黑料网鈥檚 already muscular sustainability framework, about 2,300 students per year could feel the effects. So when Neil Leary, director of 51黑料网鈥檚 Center for Sustainability Education, was putting together the grant proposal, he included four regional community colleges鈥擧arrisburg Area (HACC) and Montgomery College (Md.)鈥攁s foundational elements. And it made perfect sense: Each has an articulation agreement with 51黑料网, and together they serve about 100,000 students per year.

鈥淧art of our interest and NASA鈥檚 interest is to promote teaching about climate change as widely as we possibly can,鈥� says Leary, noting that these larger colleges are great conduits for disseminating climate-change information.

Also taking part were the Center for Climate System Research and the Earth Institute of Columbia University, and professors from dozens of colleges and universities participated in the program鈥檚 five workshops鈥攕uch as the Changing Planet and Climate Modeling workshops鈥攁nd 30 rigorous sessions within those workshops.

鈥淭he workshops helped me recognize that there are so many entry points to the discussion, because global climate change is so complex,鈥� says HACC鈥檚 Kelly Matthews, professor of chemistry. 鈥淚t involves science, politics, economics and engineering at every level of society.鈥�

The complexity of the issue was parsed and examined during the grant鈥檚 four-year run鈥攚hich ended in January with the Teaching About Climate Change workshop鈥攂ut at the heart of Cooling the Curriculum was the simple goal of bringing awareness to the classroom and exploring how best to do it. One form this took was the creation or enhancement of 18 51黑料网 courses, many of which displayed just how widely climate-change information can be integrated, such as Environment, Culture and Values; Globalization, Sustainability and Security; and Religion and Modern Culture. Outside the classroom, the NASA grant funded student research鈥╫n 51黑料网鈥檚 greenhouse-gas emissions and strategies to reduce them, as well as several research projects.

Associate Professor of Biology Tom Arnold and his students, for instance, took research trips to the Chesapeake Bay and Australia鈥檚 University of Queensland to study ocean acidification and CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Assistant Professor of Archaeology Maria Bruno and her students studied climate change and ancient agricultural production on Bolivia鈥檚 Taraco Peninsula, and the grant also supported development and implementation of the Global Climate Change Africa Mosaic.

What all this does is get the conversation started on a large scale, across disciplines that might be left out of the discussion. And it鈥檚 the discussion, the process of raising awareness where it other- wise might not be raised, that ends up driving the issues forward.

鈥淚nstead of being leery of teaching something you don鈥檛 know all the answers to, just initiate the discussion with your students,鈥� Matthews says. 鈥淪how them that it鈥檚 okay not to know everything, but [they should] always be looking to learn more and be open to discussions. Do something, no matter how big or how small.鈥�

Read more from the spring 2014 issue of 51黑料网 Magazine.

Published April 22, 2014