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The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops (2014)

Chapter: 6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY

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Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
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Chapter 6
INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY

At the second and capstone workshops speakers described the role of science centers28 in informal education about climate change, applicable models for informal climate change educational activities, and the use of art to engage and inform the public on the project topics: climate change, severe weather, and their impacts on infrastructure and society.

Science Center Capabilities for Informal Education and Public Engagement

Speakers articulated the specific capacities of science and technology centers in effectively communicating multifaceted information, and described a number of programs to engage the general public and school-aged audiences on climate change, engineered systems, and society as a component of the CCEP collaboration.29

Overview

There are more than 350 science centers in the United States, and in 2010 they had more visitors than all professional sporting events and amusement parks combined (Figure 6.1). These centers connect people of all ages with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) by providing first-hand—and often hands-on—experience, encouraging curiosity, supporting formal learning, and inspiring and providing opportunities for students at the local level. They can develop content quickly and present diverse views, both expert and nonexpert, and they are viewed by the public as a trusted source of information.

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Figure 6-1

Paul Fontaine, vice president of programs at MOS, reviewed the variety of educational resources provided by science centers. Beyond exhibits, museums feature digital media, theater and art activities, curriculum development, and professional development for teachers. They offer forums, lectures, and panels, bringing in experts to meet and talk with visitors; interactive exhibits with three-dimensional objects; demonstrations of science phenomena; and interpretations based on thoughtful discussion and deliberation. Some

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28 In this chapter the terms science center and museum are used interchangeably.

29 The agenda and slides of these presentations at the second workshop are available at www.nae.edu/Projects/CEES/57196/35146/62343/52752.aspx.

Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
×

exhibits can be designed for travel to other institutions to extend their impact. The various options take different amounts of time and have different benefits; for example, exhibits typically take three years to create, whereas forums can be put together much more quickly, but reach fewer people.

Fontaine explained that the MOS learning strategy was for people who visit the museum to realize that they inhabit two worlds simultaneously—the natural world and the engineering world—and that the two worlds affect each other. In that light, social justice issues associated with climate change are an exciting new area for science centers to explore.

Informal Nano Education

Rae Ostman, director of national collaborations at Sciencenter in Ithaca, New York, agreed that science centers are very effective at developing students’ interest in science and getting them to identify with the scientific enterprise, and she referenced the National Research Council’s report on Learning Science in Informal Environments (2009).30

The focus of her presentation was the Sciencenter’s Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Network; www.nisenet.org), which offers some clear parallels for informal learning about climate change, engineered systems, and society. In addition to exploring the relationship between science, engineering, and technology and daily life, society, and the environment, NISE efforts include explicit consideration of societal and ethical implications, acknowledging that nanotechnologies have costs, risks, and benefits that cannot always be predicted. The network seeks to increase the capacity of informal education to bring content and experiences to the public on the topic of nanotechnology, and the same could be done for climate change and engineered systems.

NISE Net is a national community of researchers and informal science educators dedicated to fostering public awareness, engagement, and understanding of nanoscale science, engineering, and technology. Its goals are to

  • Create a network community to increase capacity in the field:
    • Support partners in engaging the public in nanoscale science, engineering, and technology
    • Form partnerships among informal science education institutions and research centers
  • Engage the public through educational experiences:
    • Develop and distribute educational products
    • Raise public awareness and understanding of nano.

NISE activities incorporate the following “strands of learning”:

  • Develop interest in science through motivation, curiosity, and enthusiasm.
  • Promote understanding of science knowledge and the natural world.
  • Engage the public in scientific reasoning (e.g., asking and answering questions, evaluating evidence).
  • Invite the public to reflect on science—to understand it as a way of knowing.
  • Engage the public in scientific practice to achieve greater understanding.
  • Enable the public to identify with the scientific enterprise by establishing a level of comfort, knowledge, and interest.

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30 National Research Council. 2009. Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits. Washington: National Academies Press.

Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
×

The network has 14 core partners involved in producing materials, about 100 “second-tier” partners that integrate the education into their regular activities, and about 300 “third-tier” partners that are just starting to incorporate nanotechnology in their curriculum. The core partners are organized both regionally and by educational product, such as exhibits, programs, NanoDays, and other public engagement such as media. NanoDays, an annual event that occurs on the same day at hundreds of science centers across the country, gets nanotechnology information out to the public through kits designed for science centers to create temporary setups; the kits include hands-on activities, public programs, media and graphic materials, marketing materials, and training materials.

Because the topic was so new, the team had to both create products and inspire a desire for the knowledge—factors similar to those that characterize the topic of climate change, engineered systems, and society. The NISE team created products aimed at different audiences, with different levels of detail, such that the widest audience had shorter, less intense experiences and smaller audiences had longer, more in-depth experiences. The team used a three-part iterative, collaborative process: (1) expert input to find interesting ideas and ensure that they are accurately presented; (2) peer review to ensure that products achieve educational goals, are well crafted, and represent best practices; and (3) visitor evaluation with target audiences to ensure that experiences are accessible, engaging, and educationally effective.

NISE products that emphasize the societal implications of nanotechnology and that may be of interest to the CCEP are five posters and three activities for inclusion in the NanoDays kits; a webpage that lists and responds to staff and visitor questions about societal implications (with Arizona State University); and a short video aimed at young adults that is a parody of 1950s education films. To encourage dissemination of the materials the team created an online catalogue for informal science education professionals and a public website that details their products and events.31

Communicating Climate Change

Kate Crawford, project manager for the NSF-funded Communicating Climate Change (C3) project developed and led by the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC), described the project and lessons learned that would be relevant to informal education about climate, engineered systems, and society.32 The ASTC is a professional association of over 400 science centers and museums throughout the world. It became involved in climate change communication after a Yale project demonstrated that even Americans who accept that climate change is real and caused by humans do not see it as a problem for their generation or for them personally.33 Educators proposed science center programming around local indicators of climate change to help address this communication problem.

The C3 project consists of partnerships with research institutions and science centers to develop cases and programming around local indicators. To be able to modify the programming as the project progressed, the partners developed citizen science programs, community conversations, and public dialogues. The citizen science programs engage laypeople in the collection and analysis of scientific data to advance research.

The project team found that when picking a local indicator it was crucial that the item be easily linked to climate change and be emotionally important to the people in the community. It was also beneficial, but often difficult, to make sure the indicator lent itself to an existing citizen science project to ensure the data

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31 More information about the NISE network and its products is available at www.nisenet.org/.

32 Information about the project is available at www.birds.cornell.edu/citscitoolkit/climatechange/projects/c3.

33 Information about the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and its surveys is available at http://environment.yale.edu/climate-communication/.

Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
×

would be used. One science center, the Maryland Science Center, opted not to follow the local indicator approach and instead created products on urban heat island effect; Crawford mentioned the project because of its relevance to climate change and to underscore the difficulty of communicating the subject.

Partnerships with researchers at academic institutions are most successful when the researchers get something out of participating, such as use of the data in their own research, and when the public understands how their efforts are helping. The science centers get the benefit of having an expert readily available on a topic that is important to the museum and to community education programs. But building these partnerships is difficult because researchers who volunteer often are not aware of the time commitment involved. Several successful partnerships have been with graduate students (who valued the free data collection).

Criteria for Model Programs and Products

David Sittenfeld, manager of the Forum Program at the Museum of Science in Boston, proposed a model of a partnership in informal science education for the CCEP project based on the C3 and NISE Network programs. Such a model should

  • leverage the expertise that the CCEP network has to offer;
  • be diverse in its content, in terms of type of educational activities used, engineering questions explored (e.g., from various engineering disciplines), and climate change topics examined (including differences among climate zones); and
  • reach diverse audiences and communities, both geographically and institutionally, and consider cultural, political, and social dimensions.

Regionally based programs would be anchored by a local informal science education institution, with a mix of expertise from the CCEP network to develop the content. Resulting materials should connect the process of doing science with the engineering design process.34 The curriculum should also communicate the inherent uncertainty in decision making around emerging science and technology as well as short-term versus long-term considerations for the engineering, social, and ethical challenges, including their different impacts on various communities and stakeholders and on different timescales. Last, the educational materials should be (1) available online, (2) open-source so that other educators can figure out how to create their own similar resources, and (3) adaptable so that others can customize them for different audiences and uses.

Programs and Activities at Museums and Science Centers

Leading science museums in the United States have developed innovative educational activities on issues related to climate change and infrastructure. Participants at the capstone workshop heard presentations from the Boston Museum of Science (MOS), the Science Museum of Minnesota (Saint Paul), the Chabot Space and Science Center (Oakland, California), and the Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences (Washington, DC).35

In his introduction of the session, David Rabkin, director for current science and technology at MOS, defined informal education in general as a means to help develop and nurture the skills and habits of informed and critical thinking, and described science museum education as a forum for “free-choice”

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34 As an example of a project that does this effectively, he cited NASA’s project, Beginning Engineering Science and Technology Curriculum (www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/best/).

35 The agenda and video and slides of speakers’ presentations are available at https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/tab2.aspx?EventID=1155563.

Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
×

learning, as compared to compulsory K–12 education. Because museums rely on a voluntary audience, they have to appeal to the public, and to that end they make use of interactive exhibits, art and visual representation, and extramural activities. In addition, museums are proactive, oriented toward timely and forward-thinking topics, new methods for education, and new ways of partnering with their communities and other organizations. He concluded by reporting that most people view science centers as safe, trustworthy, and welcoming to diverse groups of people, and this makes them good places for discussions of climate change.

Boston Museum of Science

David Sittenfeld described several MOS activities conducted as part of the CCEP project. A series of presentations, titled “Behind the Headline: Engineering for Our Changing Climate,” looked at decision making about engineered systems in a changing climate, examining an issue in the local news headlines and translating it for a public audience. Issues were drawn from three case studies—on increases in sea level, extreme precipitation events, and extreme temperatures—in the 2011 publication of the Massachusetts Climate Change Adaptation Report.36 The activity engaged museum guests in considering climate change in public policy decisions about infrastructure and making decisions under conditions of uncertainty about future environmental changes.

The first case asked people to decide how they would have planned for the siting of the Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plan on an island at sea level, based on current knowledge of the impacts of climate change. The second case involved designs and plans for building the Spalding Rehabilitation Hospital on a piece of land vulnerable to floods and storms. The third looked at potential effects of extreme temperatures on the Massachusetts transit system—on passenger comfort and disrupted operations if tracks buckle, energy demands reduce energy availability, and storm water infiltrates the system. Sittenfeld reported that participants were very interested in the discussions and were in fact more willing to think about the impact of climate change on infrastructure than they were about climate change more generally.

Evaluations revealed that participants were not interested in learning about the evidence of climate change or the reasons for it but rather wanted to discuss and make decisions about how to handle the impacts of climate change on infrastructure. This successful activity was conducted for only three weeks at the museum, but it was converted and made available online through the museum’s biweekly podcast series on science and technology.37

In a second initiative, MOS researched existing science museum efforts and activities on climate change. Of 69 such programs or exhibits at science museums across the country, only 7 addressed the impact of climate change on engineered systems and infrastructure. Most were about evidence for climate change or ecosystem impacts. Half of the programs used case studies to convey impacts, but again only 7 presented multiple factors and perspectives, which are important for decision making.

The third MOS program for the project was a 7-week-long workshop for high school–aged youth. The weekly workshop focused on planning for healthier cities in a changing climate and included research on mapping urban heat islands and assessing air quality in public spaces. Students crafted research questions in collaboration with expert mentors from public health, urban planning, and community research, reviewed background information and case studies relevant to their questions, and then gathered and

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36 The report is available at www.mass.gov/eea/docs/eea/energy/cca/eea-climate-adaptation-report.pdf.

37 The podcasts are available on the MOS website (http://legacy.mos.org/events_activities/podcasts/podcasts_archive&d=5392).

Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
×

analyzed data from the Boston area. They also developed discussion points on the issues for a forum involving peers, policymakers, community members, and scientific stakeholders.

Katie Behrmann, MOS program fellow, presented the plans for a fourth CCEP project activity, a public forum on sea level rise in the Boston Harbor. Even conservative predictions of sea level rise in the Boston area would compromise significant landmarks such as the MIT campus, the Museum of Science, the Aquarium, and Fenway Park. Superstorm Sandy demonstrated the urgency of this concern, making climate change and infrastructure an ideal topic for such a forum, which focused on adaptation to rather than evidence for climate change. The forum was designed to get people thinking about who or what is impacted, how long a policy or structure should last, how much risk people want to plan for, and who pays for the adaptation. Using case studies on the Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, participants looked at three aspects of the city likely to be impacted by sea level rise: infrastructure, historical sites, and vulnerable neighborhoods. As they explored ways to plan for and adapt to changes in sea level rise, participants were asked to consider the perspectives of commuters, long-time business owners, public housing residents, city planners, engineers, and students. They then presented their plans and discussed them with the other forum participants.

Science Museum of Minnesota

Patrick Hamilton, program director at the Science Museum of Minnesota, endorsed the NISE Network program (described above) as an ideal model for a similar large-scale education program on climate change and infrastructure, and then presented his understanding of the goals for the CCEP effort on climate change and infrastructure:

  • Raise awareness among citizens, policymakers, and decision makers of the implications of a changing climate;
  • Increase the willingness and capacity of citizens, decision makers, and policymakers to support climate change resiliency; and
  • Pursue climate change resiliency strategies that have other societal benefits.

Science museums can support these three goals by framing, convening, and catalyzing conversations. Exhibits, workshops, forums, and conferences are all examples of framing devices: their planning determines what is included in (and excluded) from consideration of a topic. Convening can be done passively (e.g., through the marketing of new exhibits, museum visitors’ choice of which exhibit to view) and actively (e.g., through forums whose time, place, and audience are planned). Catalyzing spurs action on a topic. When it comes to any kind of “wicked [or messy] problem,” these three things—framing, convening, and catalyzing—are critical to the outcome of efforts to successfully address the problem.

Hamilton described the museum’s Future Earth Strategic Initiative and its activities exploring water, energy, food security, climate, and, most recently, climate change resiliency. Among these was a scenario-planning workshop that framed, convened, and catalyzed a discussion on climate change and resiliency to inform the city of Saint Paul’s sustainability office. The event convened 22 people from the city, state, and federal government, academia, and private nonprofits to develop four plausible scenarios for the implications of economic variables, demographic changes, and climate change between 2012 and 2040. The activity catalyzed the cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis to include climate change adaptation in their plans for the future, whereas previously their focus had been only on mitigation efforts.

Chabot Space and Science Center

Eric Havel, education manager at the Chabot Space and Science Center, reviewed its programs and activities on climate and adaptation: (1) community conversations (e.g., forums); (2) citizen science

Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
×

projects, in which citizens help collect data on the climate and its possible impacts; and (3) climate literacy programs, such as a teacher training program on climate change that also provides curricular materials for teachers to use in the classroom.

Chabot activities demonstrate that climate change hits close to home, with maps showing impacts on California’s weather, agriculture, snowpack, and plant growth. One project explores whether sword fern frond lengths are changing over time and, if so, whether this indicates a change in moisture levels (rainfall and/or fog drip) due to climate change. Citizen scientists are enlisted to measure fern frond numbers and lengths of local populations and compare them with others in the redwood ecosystem.

Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences

Jeanne Braha Troy, program officer at the Koshland Science Museum, explained that the museum’s target audience is science-interested adults and its mission is to help people use science to solve problems, drawing from intellectual materials produced by National Academies expert committees. The museum transforms the intellectual knowledge into engaging experiences through exhibits or programs that help visitors develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills as well as a sense of self-efficacy in their decision making on science and engineering topics.

The museum’s current exhibit on climate change, Earth Lab, asks visitors, “Climate change is happening but what can one do about it?” Based on a suite of Academies reports on America’s Climate Choices and America’s Energy Future, the exhibit uses data visualization to allow visitors to drill down into the science, see how much energy is being used in different countries, and then use a mitigation simulator to see how different policy choices will contribute to carbon reduction goals. Evaluations have shown that this activity helps people realize that there are a number of options and that there isn’t just one solution or silver bullet to reducing carbon emissions. People are encouraged to think about what they can do on a practical level to help reduce their carbon footprint.

The museum also does extramural and collaborative programs to extend its outreach. For example, a CCEP project called the Climate and Urban Systems Partnership (CUSP; www.cuspproject.org) aims to make climate change more relevant to individuals by moving from the global to the neighborhood and community level. The partnership plans to engage people to think about climate change, mitigation, and adaption as they go through their day at various places in the urban environment and infrastructure—in other words, to engage them with what matters to them in their daily life. People’s experiences are then connected to urban systems and climate change so they can see how climate change will directly affect them and understand the impacts of their decisions.

Engaging the Public through Art

A session at the capstone workshop examined visual and non-classroom-based methods for engaging the public about long-term, local, and often invisible changes in the environment, in some cases specifically due to climate change.

Jody Roberts, director of the Center for Contemporary History and Culture at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF), spoke about a new project, Sensing Change, designed to communicate and visualize local environmental change through the work of artists, featuring images of what crisis might look like when it happens. The exhibit was imbedded in both the museum and community, through public installations and programming such as the CHF Distillations podcast, science cafés, and public conversations between scientists and artists. A selection of works illustrated the array of media and creative approaches to art in the service of science.

Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
×

image

Figure 6-2

A public installation by Andrea Polli, titled Particle Falls, is a projection on a building of a 60-foot light visualization of real-time air quality data, giving viewers immediate information on particulate pollution levels based on laser light scattering measurements (Figure 6.2). Another artist, Roderick Coover, created panoramic animated videos of the Philadelphia river estuary and overlaid it with maps, charts, and diagrams showing the predicted effects of rising water on historic and modern sites. Artist Stacy Levy created the Calendar of Rain, in which glass bottles collected rainwater during a 24-hour period and were then displayed on a shelf to present a physical “bar graph” of rainfall over several weeks (Figure 6.3). And landscape artist Diane Burko uses USGS data to show changes in landscapes she has been painting for many years.

image

Figure 6-3

image

Figure 6-4

Roberts concluded by showing a video by artist and interventionist Eve Mosher on her project called the HighWaterLine, a project to help New Yorkers visualize the impact of climate change on their city.38 In 2007—five years before superstorm Sandy—she chalked 70 miles of Manhattan and Brooklyn that would be vulnerable to mega floods if climate change continued (Figure 6.4). The sight of Mosher drawing the chalk line drew people to her in conversations about climate change and its impacts. The project also revealed a number of infrastructure and public utility facilities that are located below or at the chalked line (which corresponds to the 100-year flood mark) and will be unusable when flooding reaches it. Mosher characterized the project as an opportunity for public leaders, community groups, experts, and people living in the affected communities to work together to be more resilient and responsive. For

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38 The video is available at http://vimeo.com/58422367.

Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
×

complicated issues that may seem too large to grasp, she said, art can create simplicity and personalize the events, and reach people in a way that is more humanized than science, technology, and politics.

Kira Appelhans, a landscape architect, described a project commissioned by New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA to revision flood zone infrastructure around the New York City Harbor. Rising Currents39 was primarily a landscape architectural design project, with a focus on increasing soft infrastructure or living coastline features such as dunes, salt marshes, and oyster beds. The section of coastline involved in the project included a petroleum refinery, shipping docks, and residential living. Proposed measures were (1) installation of a land berm to cap and contain contamination from the petroleum refinery, (2) transformation of petroleum storage tanks by cleaning them (using algae) and converting them for biofuel production, and (3) creation of large glass “jacks” from recycled glass to slow storm surges and reduce the size of waves in the harbor (Figure 6.5). The design plans were shared at public events that were well attended and the plans were then converted into an exhibit at MOMA. Appelhans reported that the project engaged people who would not ordinarily have been interested in climate science information by making the impacts realistic and personalized. Furthermore, the exhibit prompted the city of New York to incorporate sea level change in its flood maps in 2011. City officials also organized and met with 22 communities in coastal areas to discuss sea level rise and storms and their impacts.

image

Figure 6-5

Stacy Levy, a sculptor from Spring Mills, Pennsylvania, made the case for the inclusion of the arts in interdisciplinary teams with scientists and engineers and showed examples of such collaborations to reclaim built areas in ways both functional and attractive for better land and water management. Explaining that visual metaphors can be very effective for explaining how the natural world works, she described projects she has created to communicate science through art and to incorporate weather and natural processes in cities. In addition to the Calendar of Rain, Levy has done a number of projects that reveal the actions of water through rain, rivers, and tides. One uses large colorful flower petals fastened around coastal piers to visually display the tide level (Figure 6.6). Another uses a curtain of plastic buoys hanging from strings to demonstrate the level and speed of a river (Figure 6.7).

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Figure 6-6

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39 Information about Rising Currents is available at www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/category/risingcurrents#description.

Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
×

Levy called on engineers and scientists to recognize the utility of a well-crafted artistic metaphor to make information and solutions more visible and understandable to the public.

image

Figure 6-7

In Summary

Presentations and discussions described a wide range of interventions and methods for conducting informal CC&ES education. The interventions were designed to engage people in complex ethical, policy, and engineering decisions while making them approachable topics to the general public. The interventions highlight the issues the public faces regarding climate change and engineered systems, while also discussing and encouraging consideration of the cross-cutting themes.

Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
×
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Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
×
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Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
×
Page 49
Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
×
Page 50
Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
×
Page 51
Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
×
Page 52
Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
×
Page 53
Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
×
Page 54
Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
×
Page 55
Suggested Citation:"6 INFORMAL EDUCATION ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY." National Academy of Engineering. 2014. The Climate Change Educational Partnership: Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18957.
×
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Societies develop engineered systems to address or mediate climate-related problems, such as drought, sea-level rise or wildfire control; the mediation involves public trust, public engagement, and governance. In these efforts, societies also decide - intentionally or implicitly - questions of justice and sustainability, such as what areas will receive mediation measures, what types of measures will be used, and what levels and kinds of local impacts are tolerated.

In September 2010, the Center for Engineering, Ethics, and Society at the National Academy of Engineering began working with four other partners on a Climate Change Educational Partnership Phase I planning grant from the National Science Foundation. The project focused on defining and characterizing the societal and pedagogical challenges posed by the interactions of climate change, engineered systems and society, and identifying the educational efforts that a network could use to enable engineers, teachers, students, policymakers, and the public to meet the challenges. The project also aimed to build awareness of the complexities among a diverse set of communities affected by climate change and engineered systems and to engage the communities in addressing these challenges.

The Climate Change Educational Partnership is the summary of three workshops convened over the course of the grant on the interactions of climate change with engineered systems in society and the educational efforts needed to address them. The first workshop provided the partners with an introduction to the varied social and technical dimensions found in the relationships among climate, engineered systems, and society. The second workshop built on the common language developed in the first. It allowed the partners to expand involvement in the project to include representatives from community and tribal colleges, professional societies and business. It examined the opportunities and challenges for formal and informal education, particularly in engineering classrooms and science museums, to prepare students and citizens to address these issues. The third workshop allowed the partners to broaden further the discussion and the audience. It solicited participation from government officials, Native American tribal representatives, professional society leaders, as well as educators, artists, scientists, and engineers who are developing programs that can manage change and educate students and citizens in ways that foster their leadership skills. The Climate Change Educational Partnership will be a useful resource to engineers, educators, corporate leaders, local and regional officials, members of professional societies, and others in their efforts to understand and address the challenges of climate change and its societal impacts.

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