News & Blog
Making a Real Connection: Using a Computer Game to Communicate about Climate Change and National Parks
Do you like playing games? I’m talking about board games, cooperative team challenges, outdoor sports… If you’re a fan of getting your game on, you are not alone! Engaging in creative play provides captivating experiences that appeal to many people in ways that other types of experiences simply can’t match. Not only do games entertain, but they can also provide effective tools for learning, particularly about topics that are difficult to communicate about.
Read moreClosing the Gap Between Science and Use: New Interactive Data Visualizations of Washington’s Sea Level Rise Projections Using Tableau
Want your science to be used by planners or decision makers? Interactive data visualizations are a great way to make your information more accessible and usable. Providing users with easy “soundbites” to take away from your tool helps too. Scaling climate projections to local, policy-relevant scales is difficult. Trying to take these results andpackage them in an accessible way for decision makers can be even more challenging.
Read moreClimate Change Impacts on 21st Century Food and Water Security
A 2019 Program on Climate Change Summer Institute and Friday Harbor Symposium, 11-13 September 2019 Written by Becky Alexander, PCC Director and Atmospheric Sciences Professor The PCC held another highly successful Summer Institute (SI) at Friday Harbor Labs from September 11-13, 2019 organized by Cecilia Bitz and David Battisti (both Atmospheric Sciences). The topic of this year’s SI was “Climate Change Impacts on 21st Century Food and Water Security”.
Read moreAfter Counting Our Summer Institute Carbon Emissions—Now What?
By Alex Stote The PCC Summer Institute, which brings together UW climate scientists, UW grad students, and several visiting climate scholars for a 3-day conference at Friday Harbor Labs, took a critical look at its own emissions footprint for the first time in its 11-year tenure. The exercise seemed fitting with year’s theme (Climate Change Impacts on Food and Water Security), and with the recent push-back climate scientists have received for their “business-as-usual” practices in their professional lives.
Read moreHow do you solve a problem like (teaching) climate change? Through problem-based learning!
What if we could offset the harms of global warming by spraying particles in the stratosphere or artificially increasing Arctic sea ice? Even if ideas like these were feasible, what might the unintended consequences be? And if there are “winners” and “losers” for a given proposal, who gets to decide what is to be done? Sammamish High School students were asked to tackle difficult questions like these this autumn as part of my Program on Climate Change (GCeCS) capstone project.
Read moreMapping climate science needs and networks in the Pacific Northwest through evaluation of a climate science newsletter
“If scientists can’t communicate with the public, with policy makers, with one another, the future is going to be held back. We’re not going to have the future that we could have.” — Alan Alda Knowing and deeply understanding your audience is one of the key elements of effective science communication. It is the primary way to ensure that your science is useful to others.
Read moreTeaching Outdoor Educators About Climate Change
With the Fourth National Climate Assessment and IPCC’s Special Report both released last year, there is increasing interest from educators and teachers to incorporate climate change into their science curriculum. However, they often lack the training and resources to do so. To address this, the 2018 Washington State Legislature allocated $4 million of the general fund to create ClimeTime, which is essentially a state-level science teacher training program focused on climate science education.
Read moreEngaging Girls in Climate Science
This is a story of addressing two problems − climate change and the lack of diversity in the sciences − with one “stone.” Climate change is a polarizing topic in our country. People from all walks of life have opposing opinions about whether it is occurring or not, if it is caused by humans, and what, if anything, we should collectively do about it.
Read moreCo-creating Climate Change Education Materials with Immigrant and Refugee Communities in King County, WA
Imagine a place that experiences warmer temperatures and poorer air quality than other surrounding cities. Within this place, there are neighborhoods that are threatened by coastal flooding from storm surges and higher than average tides that seem to extend to new places than years before. In addition, this place also has residential homes, communities, and businesses that are located within, or close to, a floodplain and are expected to face more frequent river flooding and changes in stream flows as extreme weather events occur more often.
Read moreExploring Climate Change through Video Games and Science Fiction: The Cascadia Project
One thing that makes discussing climate change with people difficult is the perception that the worst effects of climate change will happen sometime in the future, possibly after their lifetime. This makes it challenging to promote a sense of urgency to act on climate issues. It can be hard to accept some level of discomfort in our own lives in order to protect the interests of future generations.
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