Climate Literacy: Creating a MultilevelInteractive Platform for Climate Education

Geographical education provides a unique space for supporting climate literacy and action. In this article we present a novel place-based online educational resource platform – Climate Smart – which seeks to expand the capacity of young people to engage in one dimension of climate action: adaptation planning. The Climate Smart platform comprises a set of six online student workshops containing videos and quizzes and ends with a serious game: iAdapt. We outline the drivers and process behind the development of the platform, outlining the results of prototype testing and setting out how the platform is evolving. Positive results have been revealed through evaluative analysis and novel extensions of the platform are ongoing, although challenges remain regarding the longer-term sustainability of the platform.

The Dynamics of Climate Toolkit for Informal and Formal Educators is an educational platform designed to provide a professional development framework to teach climate dynamics from an Earth system science approach. The Dynamics of Climate Toolkit is designed to present this in a manner that is adaptable by academic professionals, K-12 school systems, and community education centers. Carmel Green Initiative (CGI) hosted two Dynamics of Climate workshops in two central Indiana communities. The workshops were organized and held to provide the local community and local middle and high school science teachers with updated information on teaching climate science in the classroom to improve climate literacy and to encourage sustainable living practices at school, at home, and in the local communities. The hands-on activities and data in the Toolkit are highly suitable for young minds. The hands-on approach with the activities give students the visualization needed to make the connections between science, real-world problems, and climate change.