2013 Teaching Controversial Issues 1: Climate and Energy

Saturday October 26, 2013, Denver, Colorado

Geological Society of America Annual Meeting

Climate and energy are topics rife with controversy, which provides challenges and opportunities for teaching. This is one of two connected courses on controversial issues that may be taken separately or together. Questions addressed include: Why are certain issues controversial? How do controversial issues differ from one another? How can we help learners focus on deepening understandings rather than fortifying positions? What does the history of controversy teach us about dealing with these issues? Both courses will investigate the teaching of controversial issues from theoretical perspectives and provide nuts-and-bolts strategies to make teaching such topics more effective and less divisive.


Schedule
8:00 AM Introduction of Instructors and Participants
8:15 AM Teaching Controversial Issues - an introduction to types of controversy, classroom approaches, and special opportunities in the Earth Sciences

Tanya Furman - Penn State University

9:05 AM Why Misinformation Exists & How to Properly Debunk Myths

Scott Mandia, Suffolk County Community College

9:35 AM Effective Model for Teaching Climate Change in the High School and College Classroom

Scott Mandia, Suffolk County Community College

10:10 AM Break
10:20 AM Teaching Controversial Issues Toolkit

Peg Steffen, NOAA

10:30 AM Hydrofracking as a Case of and Emergent Energy Issue

Don Duggan-Haas, Paleontological Research Institution and its Museum of the Earth

11:15 AM Panel Discussion
11:50 AM Concluding Remarks / Evaluation