Through this project, an interdisciplinary group of faculty from across the University of Toledo including social and physical scientists will develop five stand-alone, online modules for grade 7-12 students to improve student (and teacher) learning of climate change topics by addressing common misconceptions. Constructivist theory says that misconceptions are a barrier to student learning and need to be addressed before students can move on. The highly politicized topic of climate change has many misconceptions held by students (and teachers alike). One particularly pernicious misconception that haunts many a teacher and college professor is "The ozone hole is responsible for global warming."

Each module will address a misconception and have a driving question related to the misconception. The modules will span topics from the impact of greenhouse gases on terrestrial planets, impacts of climate change on local populations and ecosystems, short-term weather versus long-term climate change, economic risk: what are the consequences to doing nothing and reducing individual carbon footprints. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the misconceptions and modules that we address, we expect teachers from subjects beyond science such as social studies to utilize these modules.

This three year project will include development of the module using inquiry-based and critical thinking pedagogy, refinement with teacher involvement, piloting of the modules with Toledo area students focusing on economically disadvantaged and underrepresented groups and dissemination to the broader educational community. Through the modules, we will promote critical thinking by students using a Milne-type grid and counterfactuals to encourage students to use their creativity to conceptualize key concepts in climate change science.

We will engage students in inquiry lessons utilizing NASA data, models and simulations including but not limited to EdGCM, My NASA Data, GLOBE observation protocols, planetary data sets from the NASA Space Science Data Center and satellite remote sensing data. The satellite data has been processed by our team for research projects and includes MODIS, Landsat, TRMM, and GRACE. The university's Center for Curriculum Instruction (CCI), an award winning facility dedicated to incorporating innovative technology into the educational process, will design the web implementation of the modules. Formative assessment will be performed throughout the development process and summative assessment will be used to study the effectiveness of the program.