Teaching the Human Relationship of Our Changing Climate with AMS Resources

Climate science education is a multifaceted challenge in higher education. Few undergraduate programs are dedicated specifically to climate science. Climate-related or climate change curricula are often imbedded within larger atmospheric science or meteorology programs. Other climate-specific content is imbedded within environmental or sustainability programs. Given these challenges and diffusion of climate specific topics, the American Meteorological Society's (AMS) Education Program has bifurcated their climate studies resources to address the differing needs of various programs.

A new Living With Our Changing Climate ebook was released in 2015, focusing specifically on the human relationship and vulnerabilities to climate change. While this ebook is still germane to the larger scope of climate science, not every undergraduate program seeks to delve deeply into the physics and chemistry of how the climate system operates. More holistic programs wish to present climate studies in its relationship to other Earth system sub-disciplines (e.g., ecosystems, energy). Living With Our Changing Climate focuses on these related disciplines as well as others and allows university instructors to weave related content into their pedagogical delivery.

Living With Our Changing Climate incorporates the latest scientific understandings of Earth's climate system from reports such as IPCC AR5 and the U.S. Global Change Research Program's Third National Climate Assessment. To encourage additional exploration of climate science information, scientific literature, from which chapter content was derived, is cited at the conclusion of each chapter. In addition, Topic In Depth sections appear throughout each chapter and lead to more extensive information related to various topics. For example, one such Topic In Depth links to a detailed discussion of sustainability in a recent Harvard and Yale study called “Cooperating With the Future.”

This presentation will highlight the many features of the new Living With Our Changing Climate ebook as well as the enhanced climate content in AMS' newest Weather Studies (6th ed.) ebook. Moreover, this presentation will offer some novel methods by which to immerse undergraduates into a more interactive engagement with the digital resources offered by the AMS Education Program.