Education Key To Reversing Climate Change

     The worst consequences of global climate change will probably not be seen in John K. Bullard’s lifetime. “I will probably get through it without dealing with the most serious impacts,” he said.
     Nonetheless, the president of Sea Education Association of Woods Hole is still concerned about future generations, including his grandchildren. They will experience a world, he said, that “has all kinds of change, some of them beneficial, many of them not. The gift of my generation is that the world they live in will not be as good.”
     Despite the gloom and doom forecast of Mr. Bullard’s message, there was hope to be found as he spoke to more than 50 teachers from around the world, including 16 from the Falmouth Public Schools, who were attending a one-day workshop on the topic yesterday in Woods Hole.
     Known as the Falmouth Kids Global Climate Change Institute, the workshop featured experts from several local scientific institutions including the Marine Biological Laboratory, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Sea Education Association, Woods Hole Research Center, Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, National Marine Fisheries Services, and WGBH Teachers Domain.
     Together, they explained ways in which global warming can be taught in the classroom, using web technologies such as blogs and podcasts, as a way to excite children about science, while inspiring them to make a positive contribution to the world.
     As Mr. Bullard told the educators in attendance, they are the ones who can have a meaningful impact on students and climate change. “How do you help prepare young people to change the world?” he asked. “The thing you need to know about [climate change] is that the old adage about ignorance, ‘What you don’t see can’t hurt you,’ doesn’t apply. What you don’t see can hurt you. We all need to know that there is something we can do about [global warming].”
     Over the past two years, Superintendent of Schools Dennis A. Richards said, the district has been taking steps to address this issue, utilizing the global climate change institute as a way to connect local students with professional scientists working in the field.
     Last spring the district received a $45,000 Commonwealth Information Technology Initiative grant, funding a week-long summer institute, training middle school teachers in Falmouth and Bourne on how to best use technology as a means for teaching students about climate change.
     Those lessons were then incorporated into the classroom with some teachers and students interviewing scientists in remote locations using Skype, a service that allows users to communicate with each other via the Internet. Others have used blogs and podcasts as a way to excite students about science and educate them about global warming.
     During the first year, Elizabeth McGonagle, the director of curriculum and instruction for the district, said, “We learned a lot, but we want to get better at it.”
     She said the goal of the district is to inspire teachers to empower their students to make a difference to the ever-changing world. That goal, she said, is often made easier through the use of technology that excites students.
     A prime example, she said, is Misha Herscu, 17, a senior at Amherst Regional High School who presented a session on biodiversity at yesterday’s event. As part of his discussion, Misha talked about his published book, Snakes of the Pioneer Valley, which he wrote in middle school.
     His inspiration for writing the book was found at the local library. “When I would go there, they would have tons of books on birds and flowers, but none on native snakes,” he said. He spent two years writing the work, he said, but it has opened up doors that would not have existed before. He has been featured in Ranger Rick, is an honorary member of the New York Explorer’s Club, and has spoken at events like yesterday’s.
     While he has not decided upon a college, he knows that he wants to pursue a career in environmental science. “It seems like the most important field to enter,” he said, expressing concern about global warming and its impact on plants and animals. “We are undergoing one of the biggest mass extinctions of species right now,” he said. His goal, he said, is to be able to reverse those trends through his interest in science. “I just want to be in a position to help,” he said.
     One of the key factors in minimizing the impacts of global warming, he said, will be teachers. “There are a number of teachers who inspire students to care about the environment and to take time to enjoy the outdoors,” he said.
     By using Internet technology, he said, teachers have simply another tool for inspiring students to make a positive difference. “We have more tools, but we also have bigger problems,” he said. “Technology will make the fight against global warming easier because it is a major influence on kids at a young age.”
     Misha said he has used technology to publish a subsequent chapter of his book online. In addition, he has written a wiki, a reference website that people can contribute to, for aspiring authors looking to write their own field guides.
     Linda Amaral Zettler, an associate research scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory, hopes to use technology as a way to educate Falmouth students about the work she is doing in microbiology.
     Known as Microbial Inventory Research Across Diverse Aquatic Long Term Ecological Research Sites (MIRADA LTERs), her current undertaking is being funded through a grant by the National Science Foundation to further the understanding of microbial organisms found in 13 freshwater and saltwater sites throughout the world.
     By comparing the microbial diversity at these sites, Dr. Zettler said, scientists will be able to determine what impact, if any, climate change is having on these organisms and various regions of the world.
     As part of her research, much of Dr. Zettler’s communication will be through podcasts to both graduate students and scientists in the field at the ecological research sites.
     Her goal, she said, is to find a template suitable for students in kindergarten through high school so that they have access to her work and can apply it in their classrooms.
     Already, she said, sixth grade teacher Stephen Kapulka of the Morse Pond School created a list of questions with his class this past year related to Dr. Zettler’s work for scientists to answer as they are in the field. Those answers, she said, will be provided through a podcast from a graduate student currently conducting research for Dr. Zettler at Palmer Station in Antarctica.
     Since the launch of the Falmouth Kids Global Climate Change Institute, schools from throughout the world have been able to access information regarding global warming through Internet technology, effectively expanding the reach of the initiative.
     Debra McRoberts, a TEAM (talented eager and motivated) teacher for the East Falmouth and Mullen-Hall schools, attended yesterday’s conference so that she could use technology to impress upon students the importance of climate change. She agreed that having access to blogs, podcasts and streaming technology is intriguing because it excites students. “I think all of that can be a great tool in teaching students,” she said.
     And if it is successful in changing the world for the better, Mr. Bullard said, it will be worthwhile. The challenge he posed to teachers yesterday was to be active participants and take the lessons learned yesterday into the classroom.