Hello everyone and welcome to the CLEAN climate communications workshop! This has been an exciting event to plan and we are very much looking forward to a lively couple of weeks of learning.

We are delving into all sorts of new territory with this workshop, notably that it is our largest online workshop to date. That said, we will make an extra effort to make the workshop a personal and interactive experience so that we all have an opportunity to get to know each other and to work together.

So we will kick off this process with a thread where we can all introduce ourselves. Let us know your name, where you work, the type of work you do and what prompted you to take this workshop.

I'll start: I'm Karin Kirk and I am one of the organizers of this workshop. I am an employee of SERC, the Science Education Resource Center out of Carleton College. I telecommute from lovely Bozeman, Montana where I also work as a ski instructor (thus I have my own motivations for preferring a cold climate!).

In past workshops and webinars we have noted a strong interest in the topic of effective communication of climate topics. Thus, we decided to dedicate an entire workshop to this fascinating subject. I am very much looking forward to learning from our speakers and from all of you over the course of the workshop!

Hi Everyone! Please to introduce myself and look forward to working with you.

My name is Nicole Colston, my background is in coaching speech and debate activities, but I am currently seeking my PhD in Environmental Science with a focus on education. I attend Oklahoma State University, and we are already hot enough.

I am currently working on a project about Climate Denial books for children. I plan to write my dissertation on the state of climate science education and the role of denial in public policy decisions.

This post was edited by Avery Swearer on Jun, 2016
Hi from Frederick, Maryland. I'm Alberto Ramirez, an oceanographer by training and experience, and currently the Director of Learning Technologies at Frederick Community College. I've been teaching oceanography for eight years at this college and more in my previous lives. My current course, The Water Planet, is an interdisciplinary general education science course for non-science majors. Communicating well to my students the issues and processes of climate change is of great importance, as a large percentage of the content in my course deals with it. I look forward to learning new approaches for this.
Note: The link I was sent by email - http://cleanet.org/clean/community/workshops/communication2012/discussions.html - took me to the 2011 discussions. when I realized I was at the wrong site, I re-posted here, sorry.

Hi everyone: My name is Rose Njoroge from Tallahassee, Florida. My academic background is in how political and social psychological processes enhance or constrain people's learning of climate change science. I am currently working with climate scientists at the Florida State University Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS)to determine how formal instruction on climate change science affects people's understanding and responses to extreme weather events. I plan to teach an interdisciplinary course on how psychological processes influence public participation in issues related to climate change policies.

Greetings from the Central Valley, my name is Mathieu Richaud and I am an assistant professor at Fresno State. A marine geologist by training, I study the variations of biogenic fractions (orgC, CaCO3 and Si) over glacial/interglacial cycles, with a focus on the Eastern Equatorial Pacific. I teach oceanography classes, and one of the chapters is on climate change.

Hello from South Florida,I am Julie Lambert, an associate professor of science education at Florida Atlantic University. I embed climate change in my science methods courses. We are even having a Debunking Debate next week in class! I also have a NASA grant to develop and pilot curriculum materials on climate change.

Mike Evans, Associate Professor, University of Maryland, College Park. I teach introductory, upper division and graduate courses in climate change, statistical analysis and geoscience modeling. I am always looking to improve the outcome of courses as objectively measured by student learning.

Hi folks. I am Charlie Cottingham, Professor of Biology, Frederick Community College, Maryland. I primarily teach courses in general biology and environmental science for non-science majors. I also co-chair our campus sustainability group. Personally I am an avid outdoors person. My favorite place on Earth is probably the Grand Canyon. I am hoping I can learn something that will help me better convey the importance of climate change to my students.

Hi, from Tallahassee - the state capitol of Florida. I'm Paul Ruscher, an associate professor of meteorology at FSU, where I've been located for 24 years. I teach basic to advanced meteorology and climate science to majors and non-majors. My research area is coastal meteorology and land surface - atmosphere interactions, so I'm very interested in monitoring and understanding climate change. I work a lot with practicing and prospective teachers and have tried to advocate for increased geoscience awareness in the K-12 arena, where Florida, frankly, has not done well. I'm looking forward to this class!

Hi everyone from northeastern Massachusetts. I'm Juliette Rooney-Varga and am an Associate Professor in biological sciences and direct the Climate Change Initiative at UMass Lowell. I'm also leading the 'CAM' project - a NASA funded climate change education project in which we're using media production by students to engage them in climate change science - more at: http://cleanet.org/cced_media/index.html
Looking forward to learning from all of you.
Juliette

Hi from Tempe, AZ. I'm David Feary, a Research Professor at Arizona State University, jointly in the School of Sustainability and the School of Earth and Space Exploration. My research background is in paleoclimate, specifically using continuous ocean drilling core records and coral reef studies to determine past records of SST and sea levels.

Hi all. My name is Laura Rico-Beck and I am a Sr. Educator at the Institute for Quality Science Teaching and Learning at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I develop and teach earth science, physics, environmental science, and life science curricula to middle school teachers in under-served schools in Chicago. I am currently leading the pilot year of a NOAA-funded earth systems science curriculum focusing on climate change in the Great Lakes region.
I'm looking forward to working with you all!

Hello all,

I'm from Pasadena, Texas and I teach General Chemistry I and II at San Jacinto College. I would like to incorporate discussions about climate change in my classroom and help disseminate the importance of this topic. I'm looking forward to learn from and collaborate with you.

Elisabeth Harthcock

Hi from Colorado. I'm Jon Leydens, an associate professor of rhetoric and professional communication at Colorado School of Mines, where I've been since 1997. I teach undergraduate and graduate courses primarily for engineering and applied science students, and a handful of economics/business majors. It may be important to point out that that rhetoric is not defined as we use it in common parlance; in my field, rhetoric is the study and practice of how texts affect and in particular persuade. "Texts" can be words, images, sounds, and much more. I teach Mass Media Studies; Rhetoric, Energy, and Public Policy, Advanced Science Communication, and am developing a course in Scientific Controversies, drawing from Rhetoric of Science. I am also on a NSF-funded project looking at Engineering and Social Justice and another NSF-funded project on Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society. I am looking forward to learning from and with all of you.

Hi from Kalamazoo, Michigan. I'm Duane Hampton, Assoc. Prof. of Geosciences at Western Michigan Univ. My primary interests are in groundwater-related teaching and research. I stumbled into teaching a climate change class because I thought that WMU should have one, and having proposed one, I became the designee. (By the way, now we have several!) Over the last decade I have evolved from being open minded about whether global warming is happening to being convinced that it is (and hopefully still open minded!). I have taught this class three times using four different books, only one of which I have recycled. I hope to get my schtick down and import some additional activities as a result of this experience.

Hello from Ogden, Utah
I'm Dan Bedford, Assoc. Prof in Geography at Weber State University. I'm a climatologist interested in the climate/society connection. Though climate change has been a part of several intro and upper-division physical geography classes for a while, I'm now teaching a dedicated global warming class (intro physical science) for the second year.
Duane, I'd be interested to know what books you've used for your class. I'm using Houghton (Global Warming: The Complete Briefing) and Mann and Kump (Dire Predictions).
Looking forward to learning with and from everyone here.

Hi, from Puerto Rico. I'm Gretchen Guzmán, an Environmental Educator. I work with teachers, in and pre service and students. I am hoping I can learn more about climate change, so I teach our "students" about it staying as far away as possible from fearmongers. Effective communication of scientifically based data and information.

Hi from Princeton New jersey. I am Dan Steinberg education and outreach director for the Princeton center for Complex Materials. I run science and education programs for students, teachers and the public. In my high school Princeton University Materials Academy I often feature sustainability projects featuring materials science. Most of our Research Experience for undergraduates projects feature alternate energy and sustainability projects in materials research. In my spare time I give Climate Reality Project talks. I am looking forward to participating in this workshop.

I am Maureen Aylward from Rockport, MA. I am currently an online instructor for Northeastern University's MBA program, teaching a class on Sustainability and Leadership. I went to Antioch University to get an MBA in Sustainability so I can teach business students. My focus has been on sustainability literacy or eco-literacy in k-12 and beyond. I think it is one of the most important things that we need to teach our young people to create those new mental models we were taking about today. While I am a new teacher, I have been living a sustainable lifestyle for many years now so I feel like I can bring my experience to others. I am eager to learn from all of you.

Hi there!

I am at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, where I am Associate Professor of Oceanography. I teach two courses on climate change, one for majors and one for non-majors, and I must say I am very lucky to have very interested students. My research is in paleoceanography, with a focus on Marine Isotope Stage 11, a warm interglacial that is considered a good analog for modern climate conditions.

I am enjoyng the workshop so far, and I look forward to work with you!

Hello Everyone,

I'm Anna Lewis, from the University of South Florida, Coalition for Science Literacy. I work with K-12 teachers and students on many science topics and most recently climate change topics. I develop and present professional development, write curriculum, and teach undergrad and graduate level science method courses. I look forward to learning more about best practices to help me and the teachers I work with to communicate to their students and the public.

Thanks for this opportunity; I look forward to hearing and learning from all of you.

Hello everyone,
My name is Evelina Felicite-Maurice, I am a Sr. Educator at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Education Office. I develop and teach earth science curricula to K-12 educators in professional development workshops. I also teach at UMUC.
Looking forward to learning from all of you
Evelina

My name is Stacy DeVeau. I began my career as a middle school teacher and have been conducting student outreach and teacher professional development programs for the last 14 years. I currently run the Arizona NASA Educator Resource Center.

Hi, I (Dave Dempsey) am a meteorologist on the faculty at San Francisco State University, where I've taught various meteorology-related courses for majors and non-majors for 23 years. My disciplinary research has been on the dynamics of air flows over and around mountains using computer models, but since 2000 I've been interested in science education, teacher preparation, and curriculum development. I developed a course on planetary climate change about that time, collaborating with colleagues from several disciplines, and fell in love with teaching and learning about the subject because it was so dynamic (new results coming out weekly), multi- and interdisciplinary, and important. Unlike in my classrooms, the public discussion about climate change is painfully frustrating, however, which motivates my interest in the topic of this workshop. (I'm serving as one of the co-conveners, but I'll be learning right along with everyone else.)