1. A Quick Introduction to Sustainability Google Integrative Mathematics/Science/Technology Project Ellen P. Metzger October 4, 2011 " When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe - John Muir

2. Google Project Goals  Introduction to climate change (and more broadly, sustainability) to foster interdisciplinary discussions about how climate change would fit in the existing curriculum and enhance connections between science, mathematics, and technology  Culminating experience (Dec. 6) will enable students to share, critically reflect, and showcase how they embedded technology-driven cross-disciplinary climate change themes in their unit plans.

3. The Team  Eugene Cordero – Meteorology and Climate Science  Resa Kelly – Chemistry/Science Education  Ellen Metzger – Geology/Science Education  Ferdinand Rivera – Mathematics/Mathematics Education  Michelle Steever – Science Education

4.  What do we mean by “sustainability?”  What do people need for well-being now and into the future?  What are the connections between natural and human systems?  How can standards-based science, math (and other subjects) be made more relevant through a sustainability/climate change “lens?” Not an add-on but rather a new context for what we already teach Agenda

5. Connections  Science-social studies-geography-health-math  Water-food-energy-materials connections Sustainability related to students’ lives  People and the environment Interconnectedness of lifestyle, population, and environmental impacts

6. The Earth System Cosmosphere Source : Dr. Rick Behl CSU Long Beach

7. Human and Natural Systems in Collision

8. Sustainability  What does the word “sustainability” mean to you?

9. Exercise 1: Think-Pair-Share  What is your understanding of the term “sustainability?” Write down your definition and then compare notes with your neighbor.

10. Exercise 2: Picturing Sustainabilty The diagrams below show two common portrayals of how the “3E’s” [Environment, Economy and Equity (or Society)] of sustainability relate to one other. Which diagram represents the way you think about sustainability and why ?

11. A common definition The World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission) in its report Our Common Future (1987): “S ustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

12.  What do people need?  What do they want?  Who gets to decides?

13. Sustainability: More than the environment Three “dimensions” of sustainability: The “3 Es”  Environment  Economy  Society Includes intra- and intergenerational equity

14. Sustainability as a Process  We know what unsustainable practices look like, but we’re learning about a sustainable future as we go along  Education for sustainability Interdisciplinary Skills: Systems thinking Critical thinking Problem solving

15. What supports our well-being? Well-being: Supported through the interdependence of natural and cultural Commons. Natural Commons: sunlight, air, water Cultural/Social Commons: language, town squares, education The “Commons”: “Everything we inherit or create together and must pass on, undiminished, to future generations.” Soils + food markets Sewers + bacteria Sunsets + poetry

16. 16 Sustainabilty and Climate Change What’s the connection?

17. Climate change  Science  Symptoms  Solutions  What are the environmental, social, and economic impacts of climate change?

18. 18 Global population present10,000 ybp CO 2 CH 4 N2ON2O

19. 19 This graph shows an example of an exponential curve. The modern world, and your life, are affected by many exponential curves. Any discussion of climate, or ANY modern issue, should consider this particular curve.

20. An Introduction to Google Earth  Who has used Google Earth?  Who has used GE as a teaching tool?  Video: Climate Change in Google Earth http://www.google.com/landing/cop15/  Lesson: “As the World Turns” See resource page for more examples of how to use Google Earth as teaching tool.