
The University of New Mexico
NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Carolyn Gonzales 277-5920
cgonzal@unm.edu
Feb. 2, 2007
Teachers' Institute Workshop Focuses on Climate Change
The University of New Mexico Teachers' Institute is offering a multi-disciplinary series of one-day workshops on climate change. With funding assistance from the Provost's office and the College of Arts & Sciences, the institute draws upon expertise across the academic spectrum to educate and inform teachers about a topic of broad community and global interest, said Wanda Martin, associate professor of English and a founding director of the institute.
The workshops focus on climate change – from the “down in the dirt” perspective of soil morphologist Les McFadden, a professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, to considering how economic incentives can encourage environmental degradation with Economics Professor Kate Krause. Krause points to the atmosphere as a “tragedy of the commons.” “Humans have used the atmosphere as a global garbage dump for 150 years. No one takes responsibility or care of it,” she said.
“The field-based workshops provide hands-on learning. The teachers will get out of the classroom and see things in action,” Martin said.
The teachers will also grow to understand climate change as citizens. “They will understand it in social terms – its impact on societies and cultures. They will see how climate change affects economies and societal relationships,” Martin said.
“A huge problem in education is the compartmentalization of knowledge. And we want to help teachers develop strategies for using reading and writing, which are important in every discipline. Science teachers, for example, need to teach reading and writing to articulate what they know – and what they don't know. People don't own knowledge until they write it down,” she said.
A link to the Teachers' Institute Web site provides a list of the series: http://www.unm.edu/~abqteach/workshops.html
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