Welcome bloggers to session 2. My name is Teri Eastburn (UCAR EO) and I will be conveying your comments to the group as well as typing comments discussed within the session for your perusal. Here are the names of those within this session: Peter Schultz (CCSPO), Wendy Dew (EPA), Dave Smith (US Navel Academy), Sadredin Moosavi (Tulane Univ.), Catherine Gautier (Univ. of Calif, Santa Barbara), Susan Foster (UCAR EO), Kirk Johnson (Denver Museum of Nature and Science), Carol Landis (Byrd Polar Research Ctr), Rhonda Spidell (Albuquerque Academy), and Marlene Kaplan (NOAA Deputy Director of Education). The facilitator is Diane Stanitski (NOAA).
Our goal is to produce essential principals on the topic of the atmosphere and climate. We are not using any prior documents/standards at this point as a resource, although there is likely to be overlap and parallels.
Large principals brainstormed:
- origin of the atmosphere and how it has evolved. (Essential principal)
- Earth is a system and the atmosphere is one part. (EP)
- What is an atmosphere and what is Earth's atmosphere (EP)
- Patterns and processes I'd like to see. (Not an EP - will come under all.)
Question: how broad is our definition of the atmosphere; are we taking a broader Earth System approach? Answer: Yes, an Earth System approach
- Humans affect the atmosphere; humans and the atmos. interact
- temporal and spatial scales need to be considered.
Facilitator comment: Let's take out our Ocean Literacy brochure and look at their overarching principals for a guide.
Here's a few from it: life affects and shapes climate; sun is a primary forcing of the ocean system; Earth's wx and climate vary over time and place...
Comment: we haven't said much about causes of climate or the Earth system. We need to add energy, the sun.
- The system's primary driving force is solar energy.
- what drives and influences our atmosphere?
Comment: Let's separate out energy and compositional changes and list them both as EP.
- How do we study climate and the atmos? (Comment: models need to be a focus as they are largely misunderstood.)
- The atmos. changes all the time.
We are now reviewing and discussing these first comments and determining which of these are essential principals (EP). I will add "EP" to the bulleted items that the group feels are essential principals.
Comment: The bolded comment in the list of objectives of Ocean Literacy document is limiting - emphasis on human component should be a part but not the driving principal.
Part 2: Refining our Prior Comments and EPs
Comment: Let's start with Earth as a system and bring in the human element as an EP as one important principal.
Discussion: We have to start with the atmosphere before we talk about changing the climate. Is climate a component of the atmosphere or vice versa?
Comment: We need to define climate as in the difference between wx and climate. Perhaps this concept needs to incorporate temporal and spatial scales.
Comment: I'd like to go back to the orgin of the atmosphere and add "the evolution of..."
Question: Where does wx fit in? Answer: In patterns and processes
Comment: We haven't talked about water and the water cycle. Response: It will fit in under fundamental concepts.
Comment: We're talking about the sky. Everybody knows that word. "Ocean" everybody knows.
Response: "Air" maybe, but not "sky" because "sky" could also include space.
Comment: We're wordsmithing. We need to trust that educators will use developmentally appropriate language for/with their students.
Summary of what we have so far for EPs:
1. The atmosphere is part of the Earth System
2. What is the atmosphere? (needs to be wordsmithed). An atmosphere is the gaseous envelope that surrounds planets.
3. The atmosphere changes through space and time.
4. Atmospheric processes occur/vary on many scales.
5. Humans and the atmosphere are interconnected.
6. How do we study the atmosphere?
7. Solar energy drives atmospheric processes.
Discussion: Where does the sun and energy come in? #7
Discussion: Difference between wx and climate will need to be incorporated in #4.