“These frameworks are all really great ... and we need them, but what we really need is the curriculum and professional development to go with them.”
Florida teacher commenting on the Climate Literacy Framework
“I have a strong basic understanding, but just need more data and evidence to share with students, and better inquirybased activities to use in the classroom.”
Colorado teacher responding to the ICEE needs assessment
CLEAN: Climate Literacy Energy Awareness Network
The CLEAN project with the help of CIRES Outreach is developing a collection of 500 “creamof- the-crop” learning resources aligned with the Benchmarks for Science Literacy, the Excellence in Environmental Education Guidelines and ultimately the National Science Education Standards. To develop this collection, thousands of climate learning resources will be reviewed by a team of collectors, climate scientists, and educators. Those that meet the highest standards of quality and are aligned with the “Essential Principles” will be included in the collection. As part of the new digital science library, the CLEAN team will make climate and energy education resources more visible and useful for educators, and will build a community of people who are interested in these topics. The first set of resources will be reviewed during a “boot camp” meeting July 26-28, and the first set of reviewed resources will be available by November, 2010. 
More CLEAN partners: NSDL, the education research and development program known as TERC, Carleton College, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Many teachers would like to teach climate science, but are frustrated by the difficulty of finding high-quality teaching materials or by their own lack of background in the topic. CIRES Outreach is helping to meet this need, with funding from NASA and the National Science Foundation. The two projects below draw from the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s framework, “Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science.”
ICEE: Inspiring Climate Education Excellence
Many educators who teach climate and energy topics in the classroom go first to magazines, websites, and films to teach themselves climate science, ICEE is developing a suite of web-based modules to help teachers learn the “Essential Principles of Climate Science.” A workshop to test modules with teachers is being planned for June 10- 16, 2010, and a full online course will be available for those seeking more indepth experience.
ICEE partners are the GLOBE project (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) and the National Science Digital Library, NSDL, both located at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. Teachers who are preparing for the upcoming GLOBE Student Climate Research Campaign may use ICEE resources to learn more themselves before working with their students. NSDL will help to develop video-enhanced podcasts for teachers to use as part of their own self-directed learning.
