Collaborative Research-Future Scientists Improving the Public's Climate Literacy: Engaging in Outreach Opportunities Incorporating Strategies From the Learning and Social Sciences

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The Lawrence Hall of Science and the Department of Geography and Center for Atmospheric Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), in collaboration with Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) and the University of Washington's (UW) Department of Atmospheric Sciences, are working to improve public climate literacy by designing and developing sessions for a new college course that includes an outreach practicum at a local informal science education institutions (ISEI), such as a museum, science center or aquarium. This course provides undergraduate and graduate students - future scientists - with cross-disciplinary knowledge of public climate literacy, how people learn, and how to engage in effective interactions with non-scientists. Students practice and apply their knowledge in a local ISEI, which serves to both increase the public's understanding of climate change and reinforce the student's understanding of climate science. The goals of this project are to: 1) develop the science communication skills of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty, at UCB, SIO, and UW; 2) advance the public's climate literacy, including their understanding of climate change science, its social, political and economic contexts, and its impacts on their local environment and community, through the outreach efforts of the students in this course; and 3) serve as a model to improve cross-disciplinary dialog about climate change and climate literacy within universities, and develop partnerships between universities and their local ISEIs. This 18-month project includes collaborative development of multi-disciplinary college course sessions for a new course, Promoting Climate Literacy, which will be piloted by science faculty at the three collaborating universities and serve as a model for future dissemination efforts.