Weather and climate in primary and secondary education: Possibilities and restrictions in the new Norwegian national curriculum compared with the old

Norwegian National Curriculum is legal regulations. This year 2006 curriculum for compulsory education (grades 1-10, age 6-16) and upper secondary education (grades 11-13, age 16-19) are undergoing a revolution in many ways. In the old (1997-2006) curriculum for compulsory education, weather and climate topics were mostly situated in the subject Science and the environment: Weather and water-physics were coupled topics in grade 3; further developed in grade 7 with stress on weather systems and forecasts. At grade 8 the water cycle, weather and climate were topics in the Geography. Back to Science and the environment in grade 10, the pupils studied the greenhouse effect coupled with the carbon cycle, and the effects of the ozone layer. This 'science-based' approach at grades 3, 7 and 10 has been Norwegian school tradition since 1987, perhaps influenced by our meteorological heritage. In upper secondary education weather and climate are taught only in Geography, not in Science or Physics.

The most substantial news in 2006 are less topics in all subjects on all levels ('less is more'), no more prescribed teaching methods, and all topics have concise competence goals (terminal goals). The old curriculum was more restrictive, describing to details each topic's content and how to teach it. The new competence goals concerning weather and climate (grades 4 and 7), have no longer explicit connections to water physics, weather systems and forecasting. However, the teacher has got the possibility to connect it to for instance physics, if s/he judges this method to be favourable bringing the pupils to the described competence. The greenhouse effect and the effects of the ozone layer are cut away from compulsory education and placed in Science grade 11. Geography in both compulsory and upper secondary education has almost the same goals as before. One great news is an optional science-subject in grades 12 and 13 called Geo-science, containing among other geo-topics, weather, forecasting, climate, hazard weather, global warming. Geo-science is meant to be a vehicle for introducing new groups of students to science, and perhaps bring them to science studies on higher level.