The Worldviews Network - a collaboration of institutions that have pioneered Earth systems research, education and evaluation methods - is creating innovative approaches for engaging the American public in dialogues about human-induced global changes. Leveraging the power of immersive scientific visualization environments at informal science centers across the US, we are developing transformative educational processes that integrate the benefits of visual thinking, systems thinking, and design thinking. This "seeing, knowing, doing" approach empowers educators with tools and techniques that help audiences to visualize, comprehend, and address complex issues from a whole-systems perspective. The Worldviews Network will make explicit the interconnections of Earth's life support systems across time and space as well as inspire community participation in design processes by providing real-world examples of successful projects that are increasing the healthy functioning of regional and global ecosystems.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ka Chun YuRyan Wyatt
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Brooklyn College, working with NWF Eco-Schools USA, will create The Resilient Schools Consortium (RiSC) Program that increases environmental literacy while engaging high school and middle school students in climate resilience planning and practice in New York City (NYC). The City's long-term planning document, OneNYC, sets forth a vision for a resilient city without specifying a role for students or including specific plans for their schools. This project addresses this gap by developing resilience plans for NYC schools and including student voices in the process. Student RiSC teams at NYC public schools in Brooklyn impacted by Hurricane Sandy will utilize a new Climate RiSC Curriculum based on science from the National Climate Assessment and other NOAA resources to explore the vulnerability of their schools and neighborhoods to climate change, variability and extreme weather. The RiSC teams will follow a resilience assessment process modeled after the NOAA Community Resilience Index to develop resilience projects for their schools and neighborhoods. These Students will then present their resilience plans to NYC Department of Education officials and representatives from the NYC's Office of Resilience and Recovery at RiSC Summits coordinated with the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay. The RiSC Program and Climate RiSC Curriculum will be integrated into National Wildlife Federation's Eco-Schools USA program and disseminated nationally through the networks of the project partners.
This project supports environmental education and outreach activities that promote the ocean and coastal stewardship and climate literacy goals of NOAA and the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. Specifically, the partnership supports: (1) development of education and outreach materials; (2) professional development to educators and science communicators, (3) competitions that promote the goals of the partnership; (4)the activities of the Science on a Sphere Users' Collaborative Network; and (4) evaluation of partners' programs.
In December 2008, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, in partnership with the New England Aquarium and the National Aquarium in Baltimore, hosted a summit of leaders from aquariums across North America and beyond. The intent was to empower aquarium professionals to elevate their collective focus on the relationship between climate change and the ocean, and to develop collaborative strategies for communicating climate change and inspiring solution-‐oriented actions among our institutions and audiences. The summit represented the birth of a community. The three‐day event succeeded in mobilizing 34
The Climate Interpretation Coalition is maturing beyond a set of discrete institutions to become a collective voice for communicating climate change and the ocean. As the three‐year funded NOAA program and the empowerment evaluation end, the question of how to build ongoing communities of support arises. The findings are based upon an interview‐based exploration of individuals who participated in the 2012 Baltimore summit and who represent a broad spectrum of engagement (highly engaged with creating the coalition through to limited engagement in a single summit). The interviews were nested