The Polar Learning and Responding Climate Change Education Partnership (PoLAR CCEP) focused on the poles, on adult learners, and on simulations and other interactive educational approaches. Interactive tools are increasingly used to engage diverse participants in problem solving and systems thinking.  We used novel educational approaches and fascination with the changing polar regions to engage adult learners and inform public understanding of and response to climate change.  The portfolio of projects and approaches developed by the PoLAR CCEP provides climate scientists, formal and informal education practitioners, and learning science experts with a wide variety of ways to engage diverse audiences in learning about and responding to climate change. 

Intellectual Merit: Through the development, research, and implementation of innovative educational practices, the PoLAR CCEP advanced knowledge on more effective models of climate change education.  We catalyzed new ways of learning about climate change at the poles based on scientific evidence, learning theory, and education practice, including current and emerging technology, by providing transformative educational approaches that are easy to disseminate and exciting to use in homes, museums, classrooms, and communities.  For example, the Polar Explorer: Sea Level app brings together in one resource wide ranging and often disparate datasets from the physical and social sciences that measure changing climate and its impacts through changing sea level. This scientific communication tool is unique not only in how the data are pulled into one digital resource, but also in the way that the data are organized around 'big questions' which engage and empower audiences in learning directly from a wide range of digital climate science data.  The app?s integration of instructional technology and the incorporation of system sciences in the data delivery pushes climate science education into a new area at the same time that it helps increase public accessibility to data. 

The activities of the PoLAR CCEP inspired change in methods, practices, and policies of key institutions and stakeholders by seeding interactive approaches in informal and formal educational environments in collaboration with catalytic associates.  Peer learning was engaged through fun and interactive simulations as well as other endeavors that drew upon participant prior knowledge and experience.  Research studies on these tools add to an emerging body of work in the decision sciences, environmental communication, and systems thinking literature that emphasize the important role of novel educational approaches in enhancing systems thinking skills, factual learning and informing decision making.  PoLAR CCEP research shows that such novel educational approaches deepened adult learner awareness and understanding of climate change, informed their knowledge of responses to climate change, and increased retention of new learning in comparison with more traditional educational approaches. 

Broader Impacts:  The innovative educational resources developed under this project reached millions of participants, through direct, facilitated experiences, and indirectly through other media.  Our projects and approaches are now incorporated into formal and informal education courses, public outreach initiatives, academic conferences, and professional development programs.  Participatory experiences range from science fairs, to camps, in person problem solving workshops, online classes and resources, the internet-based app ?The Polar Explorer,? and internet-served climate quizzes. These activities engage diverse stakeholder communities, including the general public, teachers in grade 5-12 serving a broad socioeconomic range of students, and Alaskan leaders, educators and community members.

The PoLAR CCEP helped catalyze cross-cultural knowledge exchange among those working in climate science and education. ?Reaching Arctic Communities Facing Climate Change? serves as a model of meaningful collaboration between western scientists, climate educators, and Indigenous communities.  Using a systems approach and culturally responsive strategies in reaching Arctic communities, ?Reaching Arctic Communities Facing Climate Change? events and activities braided indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing with western science, social science, science communication, natural resources management in teaching, learning and dissemination of climate change education for adults.  This project?s approach of culturally-centered climate education enriched understanding and expanded perspectives, especially with regard to the critical role that Alaska Native Elders, indigenous knowledge, and local observations play.

Our activities advanced perceptions of the validity and utility of novel and interactive educational approaches within a wide range of institutions, and our partners are continuing to work in their respective fields to bring the tools developed under this NSF award to new projects and collaborators. In collaboration with the other Climate Change Education Partnerships through the CCEP Alliance we co-developed the ?Climate Change Education: Effective Practices for Working with Educators, Scientists, Decision Makers and the Public? guide which provides recommendations for effective and high-impact education and communication practices when working with different types of audiences.

Last Modified: 11/30/2018
Modified by: Stephanie L Pfirman