RISES (Re-energize and Invigorate Student Engagement through Science) is a coordinated suite of resources including 42 interactive English and Spanish STEM videos produced by Children's Museum Houston in coordination with the science curriculum department at Houston ISD. The videos are aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards, and each come with a bilingual Activity Guide and Parent Prompt sheet, which includes guiding questions and other extension activities.
Over the seven years prior to this award, the principal investigator from George Mason University and a national team of scientists, professional societies, science communication researchers, and broadcast meteorologists have been engaged in an effort to include in TV and other weather broadcasts information about current research on the interactions of climate and weather. A Climate Matters network has been established that involves 350 weathercasters at 218 stations, in 119 media markets, nationwide. A particular focus of the initiative has been to help the public become more familiar with the science behind how their local weather and its trends are related to the dynamics of the climate. Many communities nationwide are engaged in deliberations about how to understand, plan for, and adapt to the potential impacts of changes in their weather on important factors pertaining to their economy and well-being, such as natural resources, natural disasters, agriculture, industry, and health. The goal of this continuing project is to expand the quantity and nature of the coverage of such information into the news segments of local news media. By stimulating local reporting on climate impacts and their relationships to personal and community-wide decision-making, this project will potentially help millions of Americans better understand and respond to critical factors that are affecting their lives. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.
The project involves five inter-related, complementary activities: (1) Knowledge building through formative research and process evaluation, specifically in-depth interviews and random sample surveys of journalists in each of the participating journalism professional societies; (2) Recruiting 400 news directors, producers, reporters and additional weathercasters into the Climate Matters network; (3) Providing climate reporting training and professional development to members of the network; (4) Producing and distributing Climate Matters reporting packages to all members of the network on a near-weekly basis; and (5) Evaluating the impacts of the climate reporting on public understanding of science.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Edward MaibachSusan HassolBernadette PlackyRichard CraigTeresa Myers
In this commissioned paper from the Climate Change Education Roundtable, Heidi Cullen offers strategies for mainstream media to engage the public around the topic of climate. She offers key strategies such as focusing on storytelling, paying attention to the changing media landscape, and being aware of audience needs.
This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting in Washington, DC. This project seeks to improve public engagement in climate communication by broadcast meteorologists, using scientific methods to identify probable causes for their skepticism and/or reticence, and to test the efficacy of proposed solutions.
This Pathways project responds to the high level of public skepticism about climate change science despite strong scientific consensus. In 2010, two George Mason University / Yale University polls became headline news in mainstream media (such as the NY Times and NPR) when they reported that 50% or more of our broadcast meteorologists and TV news directors are skeptical about global climate science. A full 30% of TV broadcast meteorologists, who are largely untrained in disciplines other than meteorology and weather forecasting, denounce anthropogenic global warming (AGW) as a hoax or a scam. Such polls strongly suggest that the general public trusts media statements over scientific facts, despite position statements acknowledging dominantly human responsibility for global warming in the past 50 years from nearly every U.S. professional society dealing with Earth sciences. Climate literacy in citizens and policy makers is essential for advancing responsible public policy on energy legislation, carbon emission reductions, and other climate change issues, and TV broadcast meteorologists have great potential for enhancing that literacy.
This project identifies TV meteorologists as a potentially important source of informal science education on the topic of climate change. These professionals are a well-respected source of scientific information in their local communities, yet rarely address climate change in their weather broadcasts. Proposers will conduct a series of studies that explore both mechanisms and obstacles to using TV broadcasts as effective informal communication vehicles for scientific information about climate change. In Study 1, they will identify methods already in use by "early adopters," compare them to best explanatory practices in informal science education, and make recommendations to improve practice. In Study 2, they will survey meteorologists and their news directors to determine their motivations and needs for information and materials regarding climate change. Based on their findings, and informed by prior work, they will develop a set of educational materials, principally a set of 30-second segments that can serve as a resource for TV meteorologists nation-wide. In Study 3, they will conduct a quasi-experimental evaluation of the materials with a TV station in Columbia, South Carolina to determine their impact on viewers. The core project team includes experts in science communication and education, physical oceanography, broadcast meteorology, and media effects evaluation, and the advisory board includes the Vice President of Programs at the National Environmental Education Foundation and the Chief Meteorologist at The Weather Channel. Dissemination mechanisms will include a range of publications and presentations for the research findings, and a website for the sharing of materials used by the early adopters. Overall, the project will advance the informal science education field's understanding of both effective explanatory practices in broadcast media and the motivations and practices of an understudied group of professionals. It will investigate an innovative means of increasing public awareness and understanding of important topics in climate change, and as well as creating a set of video-clips and related materials based on careful study and best practices.
The purpose of this integrated cross media project is to build public knowledge and curiosity about energy science and policy, to encourage audience confidence in its abilities to understand energy related science, and to stimulate exchange between community-based experts. The deliverables include five hour-long radio programs focusing on the interconnected nature of waterways, climate systems, and energy sources; a digital journalism and social network site focusing on energy topics; partner-driven outreach with universities and local public radio stations; and a training workshop for ethnic media partners. The project targets public radio listeners, ethnic media readers, local urban and rural communities, and Internet users. Partner organizations include New American Media, a consortium of ethnic media producers, the University of Texas at Austin (which will provide content expertise as well as outreach assistance), local public radio stations, and scientific organizations. Intended impacts on the general audience include building their knowledge and interest in energy science and policy, and influencing their confidence in understanding energy science, technology and engineering, as well as empowering them to voice their opinions in energy policy discussions and to make changes in their lives that will support a sustainable energy future. It is estimated that five million people will access the radio programs and web content over the sustained life of the project. Professional audience impacts include building science journalism capacity and reciprocal relationships between general and ethnic news media, as well as stimulating exchange between subject experts (e.g., water engineers and geoscientists) and community experts (e.g., community organizers and backyard gardeners) who can inform energy reporting and open new areas of discussion in the energy debate. The evaluation plan uses both quantitative and qualitative data collection and quasi-experimental designs to examine the impact of this project on both public and professional audiences.