Afternoon concurrent track 2: The "State" of climate change education

The Nevada System of Higher Education has received funding from the National Science Foundation EPSCoR program to develop climate change research infrastructure. This session will present information on what the Education Component is doing and plans to do, and solicit ideas on future climate education efforts for NSHE. Education is one of six components of this grant, and will support NSHE efforts on: Undergraduate research. Each school year and summer, funds are available to undergraduates at any NSHE institution of higher education to do research related to climate change. Graduate research. A number of competitive graduate research fellowships are available to graduate students at UNLV and UNR. Students propose research, supported by at least two faculty mentors. Curriculum development. A graduate student will work with the Component Lead to do research on climate education norms and methods across the United States and in Nevada. Part of this will be in anticipation of a 2010 NSHE Climate Education Conference, which will establish existing courses and programs, identify gaps, and propose course and program activities. K-12. The K-12 program will provide school-wide climate change education to middle school teachers in at-risk middle schools in Clark County and Washoe counties. A new cohort of teachers will be supported each year. Major Infrastructure Building • Education component has no associated physical infrastructure • Infrastructure associated with each of the other components will also be associated with the education component