Nevada System of Higher Education Climate Change Education Conference, May 24–25, 2010
Building on CONCUR’s work in November 2008, CONCUR Associate Rebecca Tuden and Affiliate Peter Bluhon facilitated the Nevada System of Higher Education Climate Change Education Conference 2010 on May 24–25, 2010. The conference was organized and implemented as the second year strategic activity under the Education Component goals funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) grant.
The symposium, held in Las Vegas, focused on five objectives:
- Develop a model curriculum for climate change (CC) education to be taught in Nevada’s system of higher education;
- Identify a list of priority programs/courses across Nevada’s institutions where funding will be best served to improve CC education in Nevada;
- Generate ideas for programs/courses that facilitate cooperation, mentoring, and networking between public and private sectors, university and community colleges in teaching CC;
- Identify new and existing programs across Nevada’s institutions which need funding for CC education; and
- Explore possibilities for the dissemination/sharing of teaching material across Nevada’s system of higher education.
Participants included more than 60 academic faculty and administrators from six of the seven institutions under Nevada’s System of Higher Education (NSHE), drawn from a comprehensive inventory of Climate Change courses taught within NSHE. Participants from diverse communities and disciplines within Nevada were also invited. Invitations were also extended to the New Mexico and Idaho EPSCoR programs to foster and strengthen tri-state collaboration and communication in Climate Change science and education.
The participants developed numerous strategies and ideas for enhancing the CC curriculum including: creation of a NSHE forum for faculty to exchange CC curriculum ideas, increase in the use of interdisciplinary courses for teaching of climate change, and development of a teaching module on climate change. The deliberations from the conference will be used to help guide the selection criteria for the educational grants available from Nevada EPSCoR for this year.