Global warming with a global perspective – integrating climate change topics into meteorology and statistics curricula

This paper will provide a review of the development and implementation of “It's All About Connections” an interdisciplinary project completed by students in AP Statistics and Meteorology at the Marymount School of New York as well as students in the global network of schools. Students analyze the climatological record for evidence of global warming in both various cities in the United States and Canada Students seek to answer the following questions using appropriate statistical techniques: Has the average annual temperature increased over time? Or has it remained relatively constant? What information about potential global warming does this record truly hold? Students in both courses learn the basics of climatological analysis as well as more advanced statistical applications in analyzing the data. Furthermore, a discussion of locating and verifying appropriate data sources, planning guidelines, assessment techniques and the use of student-produced multimedia statistics tutorials will be also presented.

Then, working cooperatively with various schools in Europe and Asia, students further investigate the causes of global warming, the potential effects of failing to reduce global warming, traditional and creative solutions to reduce the impact of global warming. Students then propose and debate effective local and regional solutions to reducing the potential impact of global warming. The use of global communications media such a videoconferencing, web logs and online journals and e-mail exchanges will be reviewed. Additional opportunities for collaborative projects in meteorology for the global classroom will also be discussed.