Climateprediction.net as a weather and climate learning resource for schools and the general public

Climateprediction.net is the world's most comprehensive experiment to try to predict the climate of the 21st century. By distributing hundreds of thousands of state-of-the-art climate models (the Met Office's HadCM3) to members of the public around the world to run as a screensaver on home, school and work computers, the experiment is generating information on what the risks associated with future climate change are. Primarily, it is a sophisticated scientific experiment. However, by relying on the participation of thousands of people worldwide, it provides a unique opportunity to engage these people in a scientific experiment, and to raise the knowledge base of the climate change debate. Participants can, at the most basic level, use the associated visualisation packages to view the weather and climate as it is calculated by their computers and use the project web pages (www.climateprediction.net) to discuss the experiment with other participants and project scientists, as well as access a large amount of background material. In association with the Nuffield Foundation, schools materials based on the experiment (but not necessarily assuming participation) have been developed by teachers and used in the U.K., New Zealand and Sweden. These are freely available for use and further development on the project website. Covering aspects of science, geography and maths syllabuses, these use the specific topic of climate change to teach more general skills and develop understanding. For older students, an introductory level degree course has been developed by the U.K. Open University, based on participating in the experiment and learning about the climate and climate prediction as the climate model runs. This will soon be available internationally In an atmosphere of increasing global awareness of climate change, climateprediction.net has attracted considerable media interest, most recently launching an experiment (a simulation of 1920-2080 with a fully coupled atmosphere - ocean model) in conjunction with the BBC. Many other educational resources associated with the project have also been developed. For example, a CDROM on the basics of climate prediction (http://tall.conted.ox.ac.uk/climatechange/interface.swf) and a computer game, based on both the economic and political implications of climate change mitigation as well as the underlying climate science (to be launched in June). All these resources are available without charge to anyone, not only those participating in the experiment. Two years after the launch of the experiment, it is possible to start analysing the impact of the experiment on participants and those targeted by associated resources.