Climate change concepts and POGILDaniel King1, Jennifer E. Lewis2, Karen Anderson3, Douglas Latch4, Susan Sutheimer5, Gail Webster6,

Cathy Middlecamp7, Richard Moog8

1Drexel University (daniel.king@drexel.edu); 2University of South Florida; 3Madison College; 4Seattle University; 5Green Mountain College; 6Guilford College; 7University

of Wisconsin-Madison; 8Franklin and Marshall College

Project Goals

• create a set of classroom activities for teaching climate change and the underlying chemistry

• use the analysis of student discourse to inform revisions of the activities so that they promote both the development of scientific concepts and substantive discussion of related socio-economic and environmental issues

Funding

List of Proposed Activities

provided by a collaborative NSF TUES Grant (Proposal numbers DUE-1044344 and DUE-1044111)

Theme: Carbon Dioxide on our Planet Key Chemistry/Science Topic(s)

1. carbon cycle conservation of matter

2. carbon footprint moles, dimensional analysis

3. combustion of fossil fuels combustion reactions

4. carbon dioxide and ocean pH pH, equilibrium, buffers

5. carbon sequestration solubility of gases

6. predicting future ocean pH pH, buffers, modeling data

Theme: Earth as a Greenhouse

1. sunlight and electromagnetic spectrum wavelength, frequency, energy

2. greenhouse gases molecular shape, vibrations

3. relative efficiency as a greenhouse gas infrared absorption

4. glacier melting heat capacity

5. feedback loops energy transfer

6. alternative energy (solar, fuel cells) semiconductors, red-ox

Cognitive Learning Cycle

POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning)

Students work in small groups to complete in-class activities based on the learning cycle: initial information or model is presented, followed by critical thinking questions that guide students through concept invention. Throughout activity students are required to apply knowledge.

Key learning features of activities:

•actively engaged and thinking in the classroom and laboratory•drawing conclusions by analyzing data, models, or examples and by discussing ideas•working together in self-managed teams to understand concepts and to solve problems•reflecting on what they have learned and on improving their performance•interacting with an instructor as a facilitator of learning

• Learning objectives being identified for each activity

• Models being identified for each activity

• Videorecording of traditional POGIL activities

• Identification of classroom testing locations

Anatomy of an Activity

Model 1

http://www.bigskyco2.org/whatisit

Sherman, R. (2000). Carbon dioxide cleaning methods. In AccessScience. Retrieved from http://accessscience.com/content/Carbon-dioxide-cleaning-methods/YB000220

Model 2

Critical Thinking Questions help students compare the different methods of carbon sequestration. This section develops student understanding of the chemistry relevant to deep water sequestration in more detail. Interspersed within the content development questions are probes that draw attention to the social aspects of the issue. For example, given a particular set of economic and social conditions, under what circumstances might deep water sequestration be chosen as the preferred method?

Social aspects of this issue are introduced in conjunction with the model. For example, the different sequestration methods each have economic and environmental costs available for consideration.

Progress So Far

The second model introduces the chemistry content associated with this activity: phase diagrams.

Critical Thinking Questions for Model 2 lead students to an identification of the key aspects of a phase diagram. This standard chemistry content connects to the issue of climate change through an exploration of the phase change necessary for deep water sequestration.

The last part of the activity involves application questions that connect the various components of the activity and ask students to use the content information from the activity to create a fact-based interpretation of an aspect of the climate change issue.

Upcoming Work

• Summer authoring workshop to finish writing activities

• Classroom testing of new activities

• Videorecording of new activities

• Recruit additional classroom testers (general chemistry and nonmajors courses)

• If interested, contact Daniel King (daniel.king@drexel.edu)

©The POGIL Project, 2010