ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LITERACY Lindsey Mohan Important Contributors: Charles W. Anderson, Blakely Tsurusaki, Kristin Gunckel, Beth Covitt, Hui Jin, Jing Chen, Hasan Abdel-Kareem, Hsin-Yuan Chen, Kennedy Onyancha, Hamin Baek, Chris Wilson, Laurel Hartley, Brooke Wilke, Edna Tan, Josephine Zesaguli, Rebecca Dudek, Ajay Sharma, In-Young Cho, John Locke, Ed Smith, and Jim Gallagher from Michigan State University, Phil Piety from University of Michigan, and Mark Wilson, Karen Draney, Yong-Sang Lee, and Jinnie Choi from University of California-Berkeley. MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Environmental Literacy Research Group

This research is supported in part by three grants from the National Science Foundation: Developing a research-based learning progression for the role of carbon in environmental systems (REC ), the Center for Curriculum Materials in Science (ESI ) and Long-term Ecological Research in Row-crop Agriculture (DEB Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. CCMS Research Partners:

INTRODUCTION and BACKGROUND MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Environmental Literacy Research Group

MOTIVATION FOR OUR WORK  Science education: Critiques of standards Environmental Literacy Research Group  Need to consider changing needs for citizens’ knowledge  Need to reduce and reorganize standards/ benchmarks around “big ideas”  Need to consider advances in educational research (including learning progressions)

MOTIVATION FOR OUR WORK  Science education: Critiques of standards  Science: Interdisciplinary Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems Environmental Literacy Research Group

Interdisciplinary Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems  Shift from individual disciplines (ecology, geology, atmospheric science, meteorology) to interdisciplinary fields (environmental science, earth systems science)  Shift from retrospective (reconstructing the past) to prospective (projecting the future)  Shift from focus on natural systems to coupled human and natural systems Environmental Literacy Research Group

Interdisciplinary Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems Environmental Literacy Research Group Socio-Ecological Systems

Interdisciplinary Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems Environmental Literacy Research Group Current Science Curriculum

MOTIVATION FOR OUR WORK  Science education: Critiques of standards  Science: Interdisciplinary Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems  Responsible Citizenship: Increasing environmental responsibility Environmental Literacy Research Group

RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP and ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LITERACY  Environmental science literacy is the ability to  Enact personal agency on environmental issues  Understand and evaluate arguments among experts  Reconcile actions or policies with values  Citizens need to consider environmental consequences or sustainability in concert with other democratic values: freedom, opportunity, justice  Actions and decisions in multiple roles that all citizens play: learners, consumers, voters, workers, volunteers, and advocates Environmental Literacy Research Group

Making Sense of Science in Popular Media and Policy Reports Example: The IPCC report for Policymakers “For the next two decades a warming of about 0.2°C per decade is projected for a range of emission scenarios. Even if the concentrations of all GHGs [greenhouse gases] and aerosols had been kept constant at year 2000 levels, a further warming of about 0.1°C per decade would be expected. Afterwards, temperature projections increasingly depend on specific emission scenarios. {3.2} (IPCC, 2007, p. 6)” Environmental Literacy Research Group

Making Sense of Science in Popular Media and Policy Reports Example: The Inconvenient Truth “In Antarctica, measurements of CO 2 concentrations and temperatures go back 650,000 years…The blue line below charts CO 2 concentrations over this period….The gray line shows the world average temperature over the same 650,000 years…Here is an important point. If my classmate from the sixth grade were to see this—you remember, the guy who asked about South America and Africa—he would ask, “Did they ever fit together?”…The answer from scientists would be, “Yes, they do fit together”...It’s a complicated relationship, but the most important part of it is this: When there is more CO 2 in the atmosphere, the temperature increases because more heat from the Sun is trapped inside.” (Gore, 2006, pp. 66-7) Environmental Literacy Research Group

Making Sense of Science in Popular Media and Policy Reports Environmental Literacy Research Group

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LITERACY FRAMEWORK MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Environmental Literacy Research Group

PRACTICES for ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LITERACY 1. Inquiry: Learning from experience  Practical and scientific inquiry  Developing arguments from evidence Environmental Literacy Research Group

PRACTICES for ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LITERACY 1. Inquiry: Learning from experience  Practical and scientific inquiry  Developing arguments from evidence Environmental Literacy Research Group 3. Using scientific reasoning in responsible citizenship  Enacting personal agency on environmental issues  Reconciling actions or policies with values 2. Scientific accounts and application  Applying fundamental principles to processes in systems  Using scientific models and patterns to explain and predict

Practice 2: Science Accounts & Application Carbon: Processes that generate, transform and oxidize organic carbon photosynthesis (plant growth), biosynthesis (plant and animal growth), cellular respiration (weight loss, movement, decay), combustion (burning), global climate change Water: Processes that move and redistribute water or alter water composition infiltration, transpiration, evaporation, condensation, precipitation, groundwater pumping, water diversions, erosion, dissolution, point & non-point source pollution, filtration, wetlands chemistry, water treatment processes Biodiversity: Processes that create, sustain, or reduce biodiversity mutation, sexual recombination, colonization by new species, life cycles, reproduction, relationships among individuals & among populations with different niches, survival strategies, natural selection, reduction of niches/habitats by human, invasive species Environmental Literacy Research Group

CARBON CYCLING Importance of Carbon Cycling Human are altering global carbon cycling and atmospheric CO 2 levels in unprecedented ways With respect to the “energy crisis” and “global warming”, we are asking citizens to make decisions (on both personal and political levels) that have profound consequences for the future of our country and the global environment The burden on science/geography education: Citizens need to understand seemingly disparate events, such as how sea ice available to polar bears in the Artic is connected to processes inside leaf cells in the Amazon, and American using gasoline in their cars and plugging in air conditioners Making sense of processes that influence the flow of carbon within and between systems is necessary to make these connections

CARBON CYCLE LOOP DIAGRAM Environmental Literacy Research Group

CARBON CYCLE FRAMEWORK Environmental Literacy Research Group

CARBON CYCLE FRAMEWORK Environmental Literacy Research Group

CARBON CYCLE ASSESSMENTS Environmental Literacy Research Group

CARBON CYCLE ASSESSMENTS Environmental Literacy Research Group

WATER CYCLING The Importance of Water Cycling Freshwater is hugely important to our lifestyles, for both personal use and for consumer products Humans are altering the flow and distribution of freshwater The abundance and quality of freshwater available to people has major environmental, economic and political consequences The burden on science/geography education: Students need to know where water comes from and where it goes; they need to be able to trace water, and materials found in water, through systems They need to know about human systems that alter water distribution and composition, and consequences of those alterations.

WATER CYCLING LOOP DIAGRAM Environmental Literacy Research Group

WATER CYCLING FRAMEWORK

Environmental Literacy Research Group WATER CYCLING FRAMEWORK

Environmental Literacy Research Group WATER CYCLING ASSESSMENTS

Environmental Literacy Research Group BIODIVERSITY The Importance of Biodiversity Biodiversity involves organisms living through their life cycles (growth and reproduction) within multiple relationships defined by their niches and habitats, and being subject to selection. Humans are altering biodiversity through domestication, land management, pesticides (e.g., agriculture), etc., making populations and communities less diverse and potentially less stable. The burden on science education: School science should teach accounts of biodiversity at multiple scales: life cycles (changes in individuals over time), evolution (changes in populations over time), and succession (changes in ecosystems over time), connecting these to human activities that alter changes over time.

BIODIVERSITY LOOP DIAGRAM Environmental Literacy Research Group

BIODIVERSITY FRAMEWORK Environmental Literacy Research Group

BIODIVERSITY FRAMEWORK Environmental Literacy Research Group

BIODIVERSITY ASSESSMENTS Environmental Literacy Research Group

BIODIVERSITY ASSESSMENTS Environmental Literacy Research Group

CITIZENSHIP Importance of Citizenship Human make decisions in public and private roles: publicly as voters, advocates, volunteers etc, and privately as consumers, learners, workers, etc. In democratic societies, such as the US, citizens have the power to make choices with potentially profound consequences for local and global environments. The burden on science/geography education: School science can help prepare students to understand, navigate, and make decisions within complex socio-ecological systems School science needs to “blur” traditional boundaries between scientific disciplines and between science and social studies (such as geography, sociology, economics, etc), so that citizenship issues are addressed alongside science content.

Environmental Literacy Research Group CITIZENSHIP Curriculum with Focus on Environmental Literacy Students will be Consumers, Voters, Workers, Volunteers, Advocates & Learners

Environmental Literacy Research Group CITIZENSHIP 1. Who do you trust? (Reasoning about SOURCES of information) Citizens have access to multiple sources of information, making different and sometimes contradictory claims. How do students evaluate the credibility of different sources. 2. What’s the evidence? (Reasoning about ARGUMENTS or positions and supporting evidence) Some sources of information give citizens access to scientific evidence in various forms and media and arguments based on that evidence. How do students use evidence to support their arguments? 3. What should we do? (Reasoning about what course of action or POSITION to take) Citizens have opportunities to explore different alternatives and to choose or identify their own course of action or position. How do they make sense of the different positions and possible consequences? How do they assess the desirability of different positions?

Environmental Literacy Research Group CITIZENSHIP Global Perception of World Perceptions activate “environmental” or other schemas Local Framing of Self and Situation Who Am I? Perception of personal identity, roles, agency Initial Perception/Framing of Situation Based on cultural models (e.g., human consumption and/or environmental impact as reasons for decisions/actions Deciding about an Issue and/or Action Perception leads to immediate decision without conscious thought about environmental impacts. Perception leads to conscious decisions process involving consideration of: Who do I trust? What is the evidence? Understanding current knowledge and seeking new information.

More information, such as papers about our frameworks and learning progressions, assessments, drafts of teaching materials, etc., can be found on our project website: MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Environmental Literacy Research Group QUESTIONS?