Next Generation Science Standards Include Focus on Climate Change

The Next Generation Science Standards , released on April 9, include climate change as a core concept for the first time on a national curriculum. The Next Generation Science Standards, the first major overhaul of the American science curriculum since 1996, were developed collaboratively by 26 states and four major educational and scientific organizations. Up to 40 states are expected to sign on to the standards.

The standards incorporate climate change into the curriculum throughout middle and high school. The standards were designed to de-emphasize memorization in favor of teaching the process of scientific work. Consequently, students are challenged to understand the science behind climate change and how climate change may affect other disciplines and activities as well. One section, for example, covers how different aspects of climate change can affect human activities.

However, some critics argue that the curriculum does not do enough to emphasize the connection between human activities and the causes of climate change. Mario Molina, the deputy director of the Alliance for Climate Education, noted that the standards for climate change were reduced by 35 percent after the public comment period. While those reductions were likely made because of lack of space in the curriculum and not for political reasons, the process removed a significant amount of useful and important information, and reduced what is taught about the connection between human activities and climate change.

There have been a number of attempts to present climate change as a controversial idea in schools, much the way evolution has been in several locations. Eighteen states, including seven in the past year, have considered bills that would require climate change to be taught as a scientific controversy rather than as an accepted theory. Meanwhile, in Great Britain, new guidelines would remove all climate education for students under 14.

Author: Rachel Pierson

For additional information see:

• "New science standards call for teaching climate change and more," Los Angeles Times
• "Climate change included in US science teaching guidelines for the first time," The Guardian
• "New Guidelines Call for Broad Changes in Science Education," New York Times
• Next Generation Science Standards