USAID LEAF Regional Climate Change Curriculum Development

BASIC CLIMATE CHANGE (BCC)0.0 Using the RECCCD BCC Module

Basi

c Cl

imat

e Ch

ange

(BCC

) Mod

ule

Team

Acknowledgements

What is RECCCD

Curriculum materials Educators and education administration and support A NETWORK of educators and facilitators Delivery Systems Feedback Systems Improvement Cycles All in service to society and

STUDENTS

Regional and Global Focus But Local Examples

The BCC Module is designed to provide students with a strong regional focus on climate changes and adaptation in SE Asia and the Asian Pacific;

Also, Recognizing that climate change is a global issue; and that some students will go on to work in other countries and regions, a global and international perspective is offered.

Instructors should endeavor to add more local examples, data, case studies, and so on to increase the regional and local relevance of the courses they offer.

Priority setting and simplifying the materials for varied students and audiences

The full BCC Module was developed as a set of materials designed for advanced university students, as a semester-long course.

The Module can be viewed as a "superset" that can be adapted to varied educational contexts.

For most other educational contexts, the materials have too much complexity and depth of treatment.

Filtering the materials appropriately by instructors is expected; to adapt them to less advanced students, as needed.

Priority setting and simplifying the materials for varied students and audiences

This approach is based on the consensus in the BCC team that simplifying is readily accomplished -- that professional educators are adept at this -- But making materials more advanced is difficult and time-consuming.

That is, a detailed course can be adapted without further basic information resource development, but a simplified course would require expensive new development.

We suggest reviewing all the materials and determine the most important and learnable concepts for any given learner group and then simplifying the PPT decks to logically present and teach these concepts.

Please share your modifications with your colleagues.

Designing a Course--Adapting the materials to a specific educational context

Using BCC Module

The BCC Module is built:• as a toolbox• as a “menu planner”• but NOT a “cookbook”

Materials are for YOU to use and customize to your curriculum needs and course design.

BCC is a “toolbox” that consists of:

Compilations of slides from varied sources, arranged by topic, subtopics, and concepts.

Slides may contain annotations and references in the Notes window below each slide.

Slides are organized by topic and sub-topic heading.

Instructors can adjust the slide resources to fit the educational context they deliver.

Why?

Earth is the only planet we have.

This is our atmosphere, upon which all life depends

Earth is the only planet we have

InspirationArt.jpg

‘Ocean of Air’

Why?

The Earth is our only home. Science has established that anthropogenic global warming is

happening rapidly, and threatens the well-being of humanity. There is still time to change our behavior and limit warming and

impacts. We must greatly reduce GHG emissions to the atmosphere.

Warming is “cooked in” to our atmosphere, regardless of what we do. We have no choice but to adapt. The sooner we recognize and meet the need, the less suffering and loss will happen.

Higher learning students are the most important asset to accomplish this. Without good students, we can have no hope. With good students, we will survive and thrive.

Climate change is a fundamental forestry and wildland management issue

Long-term Cross-institutional, cross-national Cross-generational, multi-generational Affects everything and everyone Fundamental to all other environmental effects A risk multiplier for nearly all risks, problems and impacts, especially

population impacts “What’s in it for me?” is obvious to everyone (and makes it “inconvenient”

too). Global scale, global awareness. Transcends all boundaries, disciplinary,

international, sectoral, and across long frames of time. Issue is continually refreshed by the weather Here to stay

Process used to develop BCC

October 2012

A climate change taxonomy of all topics was presented

Top-level Priority Topics Identified 4 Modules for these topics planned

BCC SES CMM LE-LUP

BCC November 2012 Priority Setting Collaborative Spreadsheet

(WIKI) to identify topics to develop within the BCC Module. All current team members voted on priority topics.

December 2012. Focus topics chosen based on input from all team members at the time.

Slide decks

Organization of topics in slide decks

BCC Module has four sections

1. How and Why the Climate is Changing

2. The Effects of Climate Change on People and The Environment

3. Responses and Adaptation to Climate Change

4. Curriculum Module Resources and Tools

1. How and Why the Climate is Changing

1.1. Introduction to Climate Science and Climate Change

1.2. The Causes of Climate Change

1.3. Climate Intensification: Floods and Droughts

1.4. Climate Modeling

2. The Effects of Climate Change on People and The Environment

2.1. Introduction to Climate Change Impacts

2.2. Sea Level Rise

2.3. Climate Change and Water Resources: Effects

2.4. Climate Change and Food Security

2.5. Climate Change and Human Health

3. Responses and Adaptation to Climate Change

3.1. Climate Change and Forest Management

3.2. Climate Change and Water Resources: Responses

3.3. Principles and Practice of Climate Vulnerability

Assessment

3.4. Dealing with Uncertainties in Climate Change

3.5. Introduction to Ecosystem Services

3.6. Introduction to REDD+

3.7. Bioenergy and Forests

3.8. Communications and Engagement

4. Curriculum Module Resources and Tools

4.1. Curated Video Collection

4.2. Literature – Annotated Bibliography

4.3. Climate Change Glossary

4.4. Reading Assignments and Problem Sets

Basi

c Cl

imat

e Ch

ange

Cu

rric

ulum

Mod

ule

I. HOW AND WHY THE CLIMATE IS CHANGING1.1. Introduction to Climate Science and Climate Change1.2. The Causes of Climate Change1.3. Climate Intensification: Floods and Droughts1.4. Climate Modeling

II. THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT2.1. Introduction to Climate Change Impacts2.2. Sea Level Rise2.3. Climate Change and Water Resources: Effects2.4. Climate Change and Food Security2.5. Climate Change and Human Health2.6. Climate Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems

III. REPONSES AND ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE3.1. Climate Change and Forest Management3.2. Climate Change and Water Resources: Response and Adaptation3.3. Principles and Practice of Climate Vulnerability Assessment3.4. Dealing with Uncertainties in Climate Change3.5. Introduction to Ecosystem Services3.6. Introduction to REDD+3.7. Bioenergy and the Forest3.8. Communications and Engagement

IV. CURRICULUM MODULE RESOURCES AND TOOLS4.1. Curated Video Collection4.2. Literature – Annotated Bibliography4.3. Climate Change Glossary4.4. Reading Assignments and Problem Sets

The key ingredient is...

YOUAs you learn the concepts ...

Design your courses ...

Teach Basic Climate Change ...

Improve the materials ...

Share your improvements

Important Questions

How can we mobilize determination and passion? How can we use social media to foster education and progress in

knowledge? How will we make smartphones part of the educational solution?

Can we use remote education, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and other educational technology to enhance our courses?

How can we develop the "flipped classroom" so we use student time most efficiently and effectively?

How can we best use educational technology, especially Education Management Systems (EMS. Such as Moodle) most effectively?