Strategies, methods and data supporting science teachers to deal with teaching climate change in secondary schools
Authors: Vidal Gérard , Larose Carole , Le Jan Éric , Eyraud Charles-Henri 
Published: March 2020

&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;T&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;he need &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;to provide young citizens with the necessary skills to understand the causes of climate change is a common agreement among science communities and society. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;It is important that students acquire the knowledge an&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span&gt;competencies &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;t&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;o be able&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; to mitigate greenhouse gases emissions and &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;adapt &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;themselves&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; to the evolution of t&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;he earth biotope&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;O&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;ur team has developed v&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;arious&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; tracks to initiate pupils an&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;d &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;students &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;to meteorological observations, h&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;elp them&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; understand the difference between climate and meteorology and finally handle scientific data&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span&gt;of climate projections. We propose to build up a strategy &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;spreading from primary school to secondary school final year. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;In primary schools pupils &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;are b&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;rought&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span&gt;from the feeling&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;s they have &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; &amp;#8220;it&amp;#8217;s cold&amp;#8230; it&amp;#8217;s warm&amp;#8230; it&amp;#8217;s hot...&amp;#8221; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;to the measurement of meteorological parameters and the idea that regular measure&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;s&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; can lead to d&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;iscuss&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; the &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;average temperature in a place at a given date. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Weather stations that acquire regular measurements are installed in &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;lower &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;secondary schools managed by classes &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;to&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; contribute to opendata. The schools involved in the project build a collaborative network where s&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;tudents&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; can approach the concepts of normal seasonal temperature &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;and the basis of weather forecast that help introduce the uses of models in meteorology and climatology. The meteorological environment i&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;s&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; also used to teach coding with &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;raspberry Pi &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;and meteorological sensors&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;In higher secondary schools students have reached sufficient maturity to handle climate and climate change concepts. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;we provide climate projections data tables derived from computations made in research labs. The tables are simplified to be handled in class with spreadsheets but accurate enough to reconstruct valid figures l&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;ike&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;those that can be found in IPCC reports. To &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;arise student&amp;#8217;s interest regional data focused on their living places are used.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;we have produced a method to accompany the students in a &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;role-play&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; imitating &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;a&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; Cop-Climate. This &amp;#8220;EduCopClimate&amp;#8221; lasts for a semester used to e&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;nter&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; the role of COP delegate for a group of countries and concludes by a COP &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;s&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;ession with&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; schools representing &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;a&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;t least 7 group of countries plus lobbies.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Climate data are complex, not easy to use &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;and&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; in advanced formats that are not commonly used in schools. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;There is a risk that secondary school teachers may feel that using s&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;uch&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; data is too complex or too time c&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;onsuming&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;. It is important to extract easy to use regional &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;climate &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;data &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;projections&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; a&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;nd make them available to schools. We d&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;erive from &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;French meteorological service web site 104 x104 km zones, at 8km grid, from 2006 to 2100 with all computations for all meteorological parameters. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;