“It's not what the teacher says, it's what you see in the data”

I teach climate because students need to be literate with interpreting data. After 35 years of teaching, I believe data has to be experienced in a relevant way, in a way that affects students, if we want it to be important to them.

I knew climate education can be divisive, so I talked it over with my principal first. We agreed the focus would be less on "the climate is changing" and more on "what does the data say?" Sometimes the data doesn't show exactly what you expect, and students interpret that too. It's not what the teacher says, it's what you see in the data when you consider all of the variables.

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute gave me resources that model effective climate education, and mentors who encouraged me to look deeper at how my students communicate knowledge. After attending the SubjectToClimate Teacher Institute, I authored a lesson on the "Economics of Snowmobiling." SubjectToClimate cleaned up my presentation, made it pretty, and put it in a format others can easily use on the Maine Climate Education Hub.

It has been my experience that materials in a generic textbook often aren't relevant to students in my corner of the country. There’s a chasm between what they read in a book and what they see in our community. In trying to take content one step more relevant, I noted that students at Ashland District School are passionate about power sports: dirt bikes on a giant sawdust pile in the summer, snowmobiling in the winter.

“There’s a chasm between what they read in a book and what they see in our community.”

The centerpiece of the unit is a game called Braap!, named for the sound a snowmobile makes on the throttle. It’s a simulation using data from a changing climate and its effect on local business.

When I asked former students what they remembered, one said the game “opened my perspective on how weather affects our snowmobiling industry, good or bad,” and that once they got the hang of it, it was “interactive and fun, also while educating us on the topic.”

Next up is a series on the return of Atlantic salmon to the St. John watershed. I’m learning that science isn’t taught in little boxes, but in how all the sciences connect to our everyday lives.

If you want to bring climate into your classroom but haven't yet, don't be afraid to approach the issue. Keep the conversation about data and student interpretations. It may not be the quickest way to shape minds, but it's the most effective, and the long-term benefit is students who become discerning adults.