Saturday, March 6, 2010

What Have You Been Taught About Global Warming?

In today’s Times there is an article about how those opposed to teaching evolution are linking it to objections to teaching global warming as well. What and how have you been taught about global warming by your teachers? At home? How do you think schools, teachers and textbooks should address this topic? Why?
In
“Darwin Foes Add Warming to Targets,” Leslie Kaufman reports:
Critics of the teaching of evolution in the nation’s classrooms are gaining ground in some states by linking the issue to global warming, arguing that dissenting views on both scientific subjects should be taught in public schools.[...]
For mainstream scientists, there is no credible challenge to evolutionary theory. They oppose the teaching of alternative views like intelligent design, the proposition that life is so complex that it must be the design of an intelligent being. And there is wide agreement among scientists that global warming is occurring and that human activities are probably driving it. Yet many conservative evangelical Christians assert that both are examples of scientists’ overstepping their bounds.[...]
But interest in making climate change a standard part of school curriculum is growing. Under President Obama, for example, the Climate Education Interagency Working Group, which represents more than a dozen federal agencies, is making a strong push toward “climate literacy” for teachers and students.
Students: Tell us how your teachers have addressed the issue of global warming. Does it conflict with what you have learned elsewhere? Do you think you have had enough “climate literacy” to make up your mind on this controversial issue? What do you think textbooks should include on the topic of climate change? Why?

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