Where do we go from here: The MADE CLEAR project and the future of climate change education

​Climate change education is a complex undertaking, especially since the causes and effects are geographically uneven and the discussion around it is politically charged. Nevertheless, the Next Generation Science Standards now include climate change, and Delaware schools are legally required to address the issue. The National Science Foundation funded the MADE CLEAR project to engage climate scientists, science educators, students, and the broader community of interest in implementing comprehensive climate change education plans in our region. We will present current research on the state of climate change education broadly, lessons learned over the course of our project in particular, and engage participants in activities they can bring back to their classrooms. 

Joseph A. Henderson

Research Scientist, MADE CLEAR

Joseph Henderson, Professional Profile, Publications, Twitter​

Dr. Joseph A. Henderson is a Research Scientist on the National Science Foundation's MADE CLEAR  (Maryland and Delaware Climate Change Education Assessment and Research) Project at the University of Delaware where he specializes in climate change education. He holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Rochester where he conducted research in the anthropology of environmental and science education, including ethnographic studies of learning and educational policy enactment. Additional work has focused on systematic analyses of climate change and higher education systems, as well as how culture shapes environmental education. His scholarship has been published in Environmental Education Research, Cultural Studies of Science Education, Educational Studies, the Canadian Journal of Higher Education, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, and the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. Routledge recently published his co-edited book on the politics of environmental education. He is an associate editor of Policy Futures in Education and the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences and serves in leadership roles in AERA's Environmental Education SIG and in AAA's Council on Anthropology and Education. He previously taught middle school earth science in New York State and worked as an environmental educator in the Adirondack Mountains, where he is an Adirondack 46er.  

Melissa J. B. Rogers

Education Coordinator, MADE CLEAR

Melissa J. B. Rogers is the Education Coordinator on the MADE CLEAR project, an NSF-funded project focused on climate change education in Delaware and Maryland. In support of MADE CLEAR, she has designed and facilitated multi-day in-person, blended, and strictly on-line Climate Change Academies for educators in the two states as well as stand-alone one-day workshops and evening webinars on the intersections of climate change and agriculture, the ocean, and computer and physical models. More information about the Academy is available at http://www.madeclear.org/k-12-education/.

She has classroom teaching experience at the high school, community college, and four-year college levels, most recently physics, engineering, and research methods at Laurel School in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Prior to that, she worked on a variety of educational outreach activities for Case Western Reserve University, NASA, and several Ohio school districts. This work included development of classroom products, facilitation of summer academic programs, and creation and delivery of teacher professional learning workshops including an NSF-funded MSP program and many years on a PD team for the JASON Expeditions. Her educational outreach work started while a Program Scientist at NASA working within the microgravity sciences program. She has BS and MS degrees in Geophysics from Virginia Tech where her focus area was regional earthquake seismology. ​