Climate change education makes our youth fail

Climate change education makes our youth fail

“What did you study at Columbia University?” my friend asked while helping me pack and move from North Dakota to New York City. “Climate and society,” I quickly responded.

“What does this mean? What exactly is climate change, and why is it political?” My friend, a sixth-grade Bismarck high school teacher, waited for my answer. She was born and raised in my hometown of North Dakota, and completed four years of university studies at North Dakota State University. However, she really didn’t understand what climate change is, and why I spent a year studying it. She only regards the term climate change as a point of contention in contemporary politics.

I think this is shocking, because she was entrusted to educate young people, who will inherit an increasingly desolate planet.

As Pope Francis put it, “Human-induced climate change is a scientific reality, and its decisive mitigation is the moral and religious imperative of mankind.” He also assumed, “We are not facing two independent crises, one It is an environmental crisis, and the other is a social crisis, but a complex social and environmental crisis.”

The words of an outstanding moral leader are clear; climate change is a reality that requires immediate action.

However, my friend’s ignorance of the situation facing us and the situation faced by her students has been echoed across the country, which is more than 400,000 Middle and high school science teachers across the United States.

In 2016, the magazine science Published the first peer-reviewed national science teacher survey, investigating how the debate around man-made climate change affects the curriculum. It found that most middle school and high school teachers only taught about climate change for an hour or two throughout the school year. 30% of teachers put in less than an hour.

What is more worrying is that most teachers do not understand climate science accurately to teach climate science correctly.Yale Climate Change Program Report 70% of middle schools and 55% of high schools Science teachers do not recognize the scientific consensus on climate change.And according to National Science Education Center, 40% of teachers who incorporate climate change into the science curriculum have inaccurate teaching.

Less than one-third of middle school teachers and less than half of high school teachers educate students on the human causes of climate change. It is clear that the current education curriculum covering climate change has disappointed our young people.

Considering that young people in the United States are most likely to suffer from the growing effects of climate change, they should learn science and not be affected by the political influence that has prevented climate action for decades.

Through national climate education, cooperation among political parties and trust in science is expected to recover.The most recent research is made by Yale University’s climate change communication plan reveals Younger Republicans are more likely than older Republicans to support climate activists and are more willing to participate in a campaign to persuade elected officials to take action to reduce global warming.

Climate science must be mandated nationwide as a standardized and testable curriculum for schools to implement, and teachers must be provided with clear guidelines and resources to fully teach it. Teachers also need to continue climate change education through workshops and conferences, as well as the latest resources and easily accessible research on the subject.

Some initiatives have already begun to be introduced in certain areas.This Next-generation scientific standards -Developed jointly by the state government and the National Research Council, the National Association of Science Teachers, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science-Climate science is included in the K-12 curriculum and has been adopted by 20 states in the United States. The Center for Educational Equity, Evaluation, and Teaching Excellence at the University of California, San Diego has developed a pilot program. Build a climate champion, A collaborative effort between campus and community partners to develop lesson plans, classroom activities, and projects to help San Diego County K-12 teachers. The curriculum is based on evidence-based climate science and indigenous knowledge, enabling students to take action.

However, while these efforts are promising, they are clearly insufficient given the scale of the mission. These efforts must be stepped up on the national stage. We can consider Italy as a typical example.Since September 2020, teachers in each grade must teach at least 33 hours of climate change and environmental sustainability courses, an initiative led by the Italian Minister of Education Lorenzo Fiolamonti.

The ministry spares no effort. Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, and Kate Raworth of the Oxford Institute for Environmental Change have trained teachers to teach courses.

In the United States, political actors must follow suit and mandate climate science courses for school children across the country, just like other countries. Finland and Mexico Has been completed or is working hard to complete.

In 2021, Yale University Climate Change Exchange Program According to the report, 78% of registered voters support schools to teach children the causes, consequences and potential solutions of global warming. With increasing public support for climate education, it is time for us to ask national governments to take action.Students and teacher Same need Appropriate education in climate science.

Rather than ascertaining the future state of the planet for our young people, let us provide them with the accurate information they need to understand climate change and take the necessary measures when it is their turn to ensure that all people have a livable future.

Annika Larson is a student Master’s Program in Climate and Society At Columbia Climate School.