Toronto school board develops climate-change course with Environment Canada - 1 views

• 
  #1 jasprit singh on 20 Sep 11

   

  http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/09/09/pol-climate-adaptation.html
  
  The education process changes as new technologies are invented. Brad Bass, a climate scientist has developed a program called COBWEB, Complexity and Organized Behavior Within Environmental Bounds. This program allows the user to create "what if scenarios" and see the results in a matter of seconds. Students can manipulate the settings to change environmental conditions and see how the population reacts over time. For example, students can create an extreme heat event in a large city with limited cooling centers, and see what happens to the population. They can then further adjust the age and health makeup of the population and observe how the results differ. This program was introduced as a workshop for high school students and is now adopted by the TDSB. The Toronto District School Board has this program in over 100 schools now. The program is also being offered on the website to download for any school.
  The development of this program and its implications on education are substantial. This type of tool for learning follows a more constructivist approach to teaching. Students are being encouraged to gain skills and problem solve through interaction. This program is particularly helpful for critical thinking when it comes to geography and environmental issues. This program is especially useful for intermediate grade levels. For example, the grade eight curriculum focuses on patterns in human geography and migration study. The learning experience can be further enhanced using this kind of technology. It permits critical thinking about key issues in the curriculum including population trends and our impacts on the environment. Further, students are faced with unfamiliar situations and have to find solutions through inquiry and analyze. With the development of this type of program the problems students are faced with are futuristic and therefore no right or wrong solution exists. Kids can then be encouraged to use prompts to evaluate and analyze different scenarios. For example, students may be asked to undertake a course of action given the criteria of the particular scenario. This would include justifying the proposed solution and its interpretation. It also allows for students to be engaged in the what they are learning about.

   

  <div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner"><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/09/09/pol-climate-adaptation.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/09/09/pol-climate-adaptation.html</a> <br /> <br /> The education process changes as new technologies are invented. Brad Bass, a climate scientist has developed a program called COBWEB, Complexity and Organized Behavior Within Environmental Bounds. This program allows the user to create "what if scenarios" and see the results in a matter of seconds. Students can manipulate the settings to change environmental conditions and see how the population reacts over time. For example, students can create an extreme heat event in a large city with limited cooling centers, and see what happens to the population. They can then further adjust the age and health makeup of the population and observe how the results differ. This program was introduced as a workshop for high school students and is now adopted by the TDSB. The Toronto District School Board has this program in over 100 schools now. The program is also being offered on the website to download for any school. <br /> The development of this program and its implications on education are substantial. This type of tool for learning follows a more constructivist approach to teaching. Students are being encouraged to gain skills and problem solve through interaction. This program is particularly helpful for critical thinking when it comes to geography and environmental issues. This program is especially useful for intermediate grade levels. For example, the grade eight curriculum focuses on patterns in human geography and migration study. The learning experience can be further enhanced using this kind of technology. It permits critical thinking about key issues in the curriculum including population trends and our impacts on the environment. Further, students are faced with unfamiliar situations and have to find solutions through inquiry and analyze. With the development of this type of program the problems students are faced with are futuristic and therefore no right or wrong solution exists. Kids can then be encouraged to use prompts to evaluate and analyze different scenarios. For example, students may be asked to undertake a course of action given the criteria of the particular scenario. This would include justifying the proposed solution and its interpretation. It also allows for students to be engaged in the what they are learning about.</div>

  ...

  Cancel

To Top