August 15, 2012
Summary Report of
Nurture Nature Center Pilot Discussion Forum for Teachers
Rising Waters: Weather and Climate – A Global to Local View
This report summarizes the results of a discussion forum for high school teachers held at
Nurture Nature Center (NNC) in Easton, PA on April 16, 2012. The forum was part of a day-long
pilot workshop called “Rising Waters: Weather and Climate – a local and global view,” that
attracted nine participants from the Lehigh Valley area representing six different schools. The
goal of the program was to introduce educators to the resources available at NNC and to show
teaching strategies that integrate science, art, and dialogue to inspire critical thinking about
science, in this case climate change. The program provided educators with curriculum-based
material that met the Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Science and Technology and
Environment & Ecology for grades 4 through 12. A total of six Act 48 professional development
activity hours were granted to the PA certified teachers upon completion of the program.
NNC’s mission is to help communities address local environmental risks through science, art,
and dialogue. With support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA)1, NNC hosted this program and teacher discussion for three reasons: 1) to help teachers
explore new and engaging ways to teach students about climate and climate change, 2) to help
NNC identify the informational and technical needs of classroom teachers engaged in climate
change instruction and 3) to help NNC adapt its forum model to better serve the objectives and
needs of classroom teachers.
This report, compiled by NNC, contains a summary of the facilitated discussion which focused
on the teacher’s experiences teaching climate change in the classroom. Participants
1
Financial support for this project under award NA10SEC0080020 is from the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce. The statements, findings
conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) or the U.S. Department of Commerce.
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understood that their discussion feedback would be summarized in a report that would be
shared with other teaching professionals.
Program Format
The day-long workshop began with a 1-hour presentation of the “Rising Waters” program,
which NNC developed in 2011 for its Science on a Sphere exhibit. (Science on a Sphere is a 6foot animated globe created by NOAA, which shows a variety of earth and space science
programs.) The Rising Waters program shows the climatic conditions for precipitation and looks
at current and future trends of global flooding.
The workshop also featured a demonstration about how art can be used to generate interest in
climate and other science issues, as well as a hands-on workshop on land use and watersheds.
Participants also heard a series of lectures from Nick Henshue, a local high school science
teacher with expertise in teaching climate change on a national level. These lectures addressed
basic climate science, as well as methods for explaining to students “how we know what we
know” about climate change in order to improve comprehension. Mr. Henshue then led a
facilitated discussion about the assets, barriers, and difficulties of teaching climate change.
Teacher Discussion of Assets, Barriers, and Difficulties to Teaching Climate Change in the
Classroom
The teachers were divided into two groups and each group was asked to discuss and then list
the 1) favorable influences, 2) unfavorable influences, 3) resources, and 4) drawbacks
encountered when teaching climate change in the classroom. Following this, each of the two
groups presented the results of their discussion, which are shown below:
Teacher Responses to Discussion:
Favorable Influences
 Librarian
 Principal
 Student interest
 Art
 Student creativity
 Other teachers
 Small class size
 State agencies (DCNR)
 Student attitude
 Popular/social media
 School board
 Greater appreciation for art and nature
Unfavorable Influences
 Political attention
 Media resistance
 Weather vs. climate confusion
 Public perception
 Administrative barriers (attendance
support)
 Large class size
 Budget
 State curriculum (moving to keystone
exams)
 Student attitude
 Popular/social media
 School board
 Controversial topics
 Lack of planning time
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Resources Available at School
 Internet
 Weather station
 Earth day/week
 Media support
 Art
 Recycling
 Conferences/workshops
 Texts
 Lab equipment
 Field trips
 Websites
 Electronic devices
 Citizen science (stewardship)
 Contacts/experts
 Library
 Art gallery
 Art teacher
Drawbacks at School
 Time
 Cross- curriculum conflict
 Test teaching
 Finances – school and home
 Small classroom
 No outdoor lab opportunities
 Electronic Devices
This pilot discussion engaged a small group of teachers from a variety of schools throughout the
Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. The teachers had varying backgrounds and motivations for
attending. The summary of the discussion above suggests that although a lot of resources and
support are available to teachers, there are difficulties that teachers face when teaching
climate change such as public perception, among others.
To identify distinct trends in the needs and resources of teaching climate change regionally,
NNC will need to develop additional programming for a broader cross section of teachers. The
findings from this pilot forum will be used as a basis for developing future forum programming
that focuses more directly on some of the findings uncovered during the pilot discussion.
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