Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 22 May 2019
Many online climate change lessons are actually junk

By MICHAEL MELIA report that they shy away
Associated Press from the topic not only be-
When science teacher Di- cause of issues with mate-
ana Allen set out to teach rials but also the political
climate change, a sub- sensitivities, and uncertain-
ject she'd never learned in ty over where to introduce
school, she fell into a rab- an issue that crosses so
bit's hole of misinformation: many disciplines.
Many resources presented Diana Allen, 48, said she
online as educational ma- began to see it as her duty
terial were actually junk. to teach climate change
"It is a pretty scary topic even though it's not re-
to take on," said Allen, a quired under Maine's sci-
teacher at Sanford Junior ence education standards.
High School, in southern For her lesson plans on cli-
Maine. "There are some mate change, she turns
pretty tricky websites out primarily to other teachers,
there. You kind of have to pulling resources they have
be an expert to be able to In this April 25, 2019, photo, science teacher Sarah Ott speaks to her class about climate literacy vetted and shared on an
see through that like, 'Oh, in Dalton, Ga. email thread overseen
no, these guys aren't telling Associated Press by the National Science
you the truth.'" Teachers Association . Oth-
There are materials pro- Intergovernmental Panel nies. ExxonMobil, Chevron, are intended to supple- er teachers have turned
duced by climate change on Climate Change that Shell and other companies ment what students learn in to the National Center for
doubters, lesson plans de- global warming is real and have invested heavily in school. Science Education, which
veloped by the oil indus- man-made. promoting science, tech- Kevin Leineweber, a sci- posts free climate change
try, and countless other Another resource, a set of nology, engineering and ence teacher at Cascade lessons and has a "scientist
sites with misleading or six lesson plans on under- math education in K-12 High School in Clayton, In- in the classroom " program.
outdated information. The standing climate change, schools. Such materials are diana, said he is skeptical Many educators say that
Climate Literacy and En- is available online from the used widely to teach topics about resources sent to climate change as an
ergy Awareness Network , Canada-based Fraser In- related to energy, but crit- him, including oil industry area of instruction is still so
funded by federal grants, stitute, which counts the ics say they can mislead by materials, but some col- new that textbook publish-
reviewed more than 30,000 Charles Koch Foundation not addressing the role of leagues are less so. At a ers have not caught up
free online resources and among its financial sup- burning fossil fuels in global districtwide science meet- enough to provide useful
found only 700 acceptable porters. The lessons claim warming. ing a couple months ago materials.
for use in schools. that mainstream climate For teachers in cash- one elementary school "I have a Ph.D. from Stan-
"There's a lot of informa- scientists have made selec- strapped schools, it can teacher expressed excite- ford in biochemistry, and
tion that's out there that is tive use of data and that it's be hard to pass up the free ment about receiving un- it's still hard for me to source
broken, old, misleading, a matter of debate wheth- handout materials. solicited materials on cli- stuff that works in my class-
not scientifically sound, not er human-generated car- Melissa Lau, a sixth-grade mate change in the mail, room right," said Kirstin Milks,
sound technically," said bon dioxide emissions have teacher in Piedmont, Okla- to help introduce the topic an Earth science teacher
Frank Niepold, a climate contributed to climate homa, attended one of to students. After talking it at Bloomington High School
education coordinator at change, saying "the issues the training sessions put over with Leineweber, the South in Indiana.
the National Oceanic and are far from settled." on regularly for teachers teacher tossed the mailing Milks helps train educators
Atmospheric Administra- "Our history is full of ex- by the Oklahoma Energy of unknown origin. on how to teach climate
tion. amples where 'common Resource Bureau, which is "I'm just like, 'Oh, jeez,'" change. In their applica-
The Heartland Institute, an knowledge' was discarded funded by the oil and gas Leineweber said. tions, many teachers dis-
Illinois-based group that in favor of more correct companies. She kept the The oil industry materials play a sense of urgency,
dismisses climate change, hypotheses," the lesson $50 stipend and the tub full have the effect of pushing she said.
in 2017 sent thousands of plans say. Among them, it of science equipment she climate change to the pe- "I think we all are in that
science teachers copies of lists, "Are diseases caused got from the group but she riphery, Charles Anderson, same boat of understand-
a book titled "Why Scien- by evil spirits? Are natural tossed its illustrated lesson a professor of science edu- ing that this might be one
tists Disagree About Global disasters caused by angry plans featuring the charac- cation at Michigan State of the most important social
Warming" The book, attrib- gods?" ter "Petro Pete." University. justice issues of our time,
uted to the group's Non- And: "Does smoking pose a In a book available online, "The school systems of the one of the most important
governmental International threat to your health?" Petro Pete has a night- country are so fragmented environmental issues of our
Panel on Climate Change, Also vying for educators' mare about everything and under-resourced that time, one of the most im-
misrepresents the near-uni- attention are classroom- that would be missing from they have no choice but to portant political issues of
versal consensus of scien- ready materials made his life if there were no pe- turn to people like the oil in- our time," she said.
tists and the United Nations' available by the oil compa- troleum products, from his dustry who offer them free Sometimes educators have
toothbrush to his school stuff," he said. to push back against what
bus. Climate change education their students are taught in
"I get free beakers and cool varies across states, and other classrooms.
things like that," Lau said. often from one classroom Leigh Foy, a science
"But the curriculum itself is to the next. The Next Gen- teacher at York Suburban
borderline propaganda." eration Science Standards, High School in Pennsylva-
A spokeswoman for the in- which emphasize climate nia, said a social studies
dustry group, Dara McBee, change and how humans teacher at her school has
said their materials align are altering the planet, told students for years that
with Oklahoma standards, have been adopted by or climate change is a hoax
which do not reference served as a model for most and he could prove it with
climate change, and they states. But many teachers an experiment. q