World Climate: A Computer-Simulation-Based Role-Playing Exercise
http://climateinteractive.org/simulations/world-climate
http://climateinteractive.org/simulations/world-climate
Fiddaman, John Sterman, copyrighted by Schlumberger Ltd.
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Topics
Grade Level
Climate Literacy
About Teaching Climate Literacy
GPa 
GPaClimate information can be used to reduce vulnerabilities or enhance the resilience of communities and ecosystems affected by climate change. Continuing to improve scientific understanding of the climate system and the quality of reports to policy and decision-makers is crucial.
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Reducing human vulnerability to the impacts of climate change depends not only upon our ability to understand climate science, but also upon our ability to integrate that knowledge into human society. Decisions that involve Earth’s climate must be made with an understanding of the complex inter-connections among the physical and biological components of the Earth system as well as the consequences of such decisions on social, economic, and cultural systems.
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Humans may be able to mitigate climate change or lessen its severity by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations through processes that move carbon out of the atmosphere or reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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Actions taken by individuals, communities, states, and countries all influence climate. Practices and policies followed in homes, schools, businesses, and governments can affect climate. Climate-related decisions made by one generation can provide opportunities as well as limit the range of possibilities open to the next generation. Steps toward reducing the impact of climate change may influence the present generation by providing other benefits such as improved public health infrastructure and sustainable built environments.
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ans can take actions to reduce climate change and its impacts.
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man activities are impacting the climate system
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mate change will have consequences for the Earth system and human lives
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Energy Literacy
Decisions concerning the use of energy resources are made at many levels.
5.1 Energy decisions are made at many levels.
Behavior and design affect the amount of energy used by human society.
6.6 Behavior and design.
Earth's weather and climate is mostly driven by energy from the Sun.
2.3 Earth's climate driven by the Sun.
Greenhouse gases affect energy flow through the Earth system.
2.6 Greenhouse gases affect energy flow.
Physical processes on Earth are the result of energy flow through the Earth system.
Physical processes on Earth are the result of energy flow .
Excellence in Environmental Education Guidelines
2. Knowledge of Environmental Processes and Systems:2.2 The Living Environment:D) Flow of matter and energy
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D) Flow of matter and energy.
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D) Flow of matter and energy.
2. Knowledge of Environmental Processes and Systems:2.3 Humans and Their Societies:A) Individuals and groups
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A) Individuals and groups.
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A) Individuals and groups.
2. Knowledge of Environmental Processes and Systems:2.3 Humans and Their Societies:B) Culture
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B) Culture.
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B) Culture.
2. Knowledge of Environmental Processes and Systems:2.3 Humans and Their Societies:C) Political and economic systems
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C) Political and economic systems.
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C) Political and economic systems.
2. Knowledge of Environmental Processes and Systems:2.3 Humans and Their Societies:D) Global Connections
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D) Global Connections.
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D) Global Connections.
2. Knowledge of Environmental Processes and Systems:2.4 Environment and Society:A) Human/environment interactions
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A) Human/environment interactions.
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A) Human/environment interactions.
2. Knowledge of Environmental Processes and Systems:2.4 Environment and Society:D) Technology
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D) Technology.
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D) Technology.
2. Knowledge of Environmental Processes and Systems:2.4 Environment and Society:E) Environmental Issues
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E) Environmental Issues.
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E) Environmental Issues.
3. Skills for Understanding and Addressing Environmental Issues:3.1 Skills for Analyzing and Investigating Environmental Issues:B) Sorting out the consequences of issues
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B) Sorting out the consequences of issues.
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B) Sorting out the consequences of issues.
Benchmarks for Science Literacy
Learn more about the Benchmarks
Scientists can bring information, insights, and analytical skills to bear on matters of public concern. Acting in their areas of expertise, scientists can help people understand the likely causes of events and estimate their possible effects.
The global environment is affected by national and international policies and practices relating to energy use, waste disposal, ecological management, manufacturing, and population.
The growing worldwide interdependence of social, economic, and ecological systems means that changes in one place in the world may have effects in any other place.
Decisions to slow the depletion of energy resources can be made at many levels, from personal to national, and they always involve trade-offs involving economic costs and social values.
Notes From Our Reviewers
The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness.
Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about
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Teaching Tips | Science | Pedagogy |
Technical Details
Teaching Tips
- The original simulators may be best used for higher grade levels like college. http://climateinteractive.org/simulations
- Scroll down to "facilitator resources" to get to activity and model.
About the Science
- Climate simulations provide an overview of climate-science for policy and political decision-making.
- Formerly Copenhagen Climate Exercise.
- Comments from expert scientist: Overall, this looks great, and effectively combines the experiential learning with fundamentals of climate politics and policy. The focus is on politics and policy negotiations, so only glancing attention paid to science as information input.
About the Pedagogy
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From the website description:
- "The simulation debrief tends to cover multiple areas including international geo-political dynamics the biogeochemistry of climate oceans plants the carbon cycle tipping points cultural barriers to global agreements managing hope and fear amidst an uncertain future a systems perspective on complex issues and the technological legal and behavioral changes that will help stabilize the climate."
- "Overall we've seen World Climate help people quickly learn the policy-relevant science of climate change, viscerally experience the international dynamics, and succeed at crafting a solution to the challenges while taking a realistic look at the scale of changes ahead as we shift to a low-carbon global economy."
Technical Details/Ease of Use
- For some learners or learning environments, simplified simulators such as the Climate Bathtub Animation (http://climateinteractive.org/simulations/bathtub/the-climate-bathtub-animation) or the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Simulator (http://climateinteractive.org/simulations/mits-greenhouse-gas-simulator) may be more accessible or appropriate.
- Active role playing scenarios can be customized or updated by educators to reflect the changing "climate" of decision-making.
Related URLs These related sites were noted by our reviewers but have not been reviewed by CLEAN
Direct link to PDF: http://climateinteractive.org/simulations/world-climate/instructor-resources/WC%20facilitator%20guide/at_download/fileHave you used these materials with your students? Do you have insights to share with other educators about their use? Please share with the community by adding a comment below.
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