Monthly Archives: February 2012

Video Presentation on the Smart Grid and Regulation in the United States

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Professor Joel Eisen’s recent Energy Policy & Climate Forum presentation at Johns Hopkins University, entitled “Smart Regulation and Federalism for the Smart Grid,” is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jENj8ogHng

Sustainability and Climate Change Workshops

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Colleagues-

 

Below you will find several workshop opportunities on Sustainability and Climate,  as well as workshops on Teaching the Methods of Geoscience, Teaching Environmental Geology, and workshops for early career faculty and those preparing for an academic career.  Note that many of these workshops have impending application deadlines.

 

In addition, you will find below the first call for module authors from the InTeGrate project.  InTeGrate (http://serc.carleton.edu/integrate/index.html) is a 5 year, community effort to improve geoscience literacy and build a workforce that is prepared to tackle environmental and resource challenges. The project includes many opportunities for participation and collaboration such as developing curricular materials, assessing and testing newly developed materials, or attending a workshop.

 

I hope that you will find something of interest in this set of opportunities.

 

Cathy Manduca

 

 

Call for InTeGrate Introductory Module Authors

 

The InTeGrate Project (Interdisciplinary Teaching of Geoscience for a Sustainable Future) seeks applications from faculty and instructors to become co-authors of modular teaching materials for use in college-level introductory geoscience or environmental science courses.

Module teams will consist of three co-authors who will write, test, revise and publish modules that support broad development of geoscience literacy by teaching about geoscience/environmental science in the context of societal issues. Each module team member will receive a $15,000 stipend for the successful completion of the module.

Over the life of the project we anticipate the creation of twelve modules. In this first round of module development, we seek applications to fully support teaching of one of the following module topics over approximately two weeks of classes:
– Humanity’s dependence on Earth’s mineral resources
– Interchanges between ocean and atmosphere in short-term climate variations
– Natural hazards, earth processes, and society
– The availability of sufficient clean freshwater
– Impact of modern environmental change on the biosphere

The application deadline is March 16, 2012. You may apply independently or as part of a team. Team members must be from 3 different academic institutions. All module materials must meet the standards set forth in the InTeGrate Design Rubric.

For more information, see the Call for Authors and the Module Author Application form:
http://serc.carleton.edu/integrate/call_authors.html
http://serc.carleton.edu/integrate/author_apply.html

Contact David McConnell with questions ()

 

2012 Workshops for Sustainability and Climate

The topics of sustainability and climate change offer important opportunities to engage students in science that is multidisciplinary, complex and societally relevant. Thus, we are pleased to announce a suite of workshops for college faculty addressing various aspects of sustainability and climate science in higher education. Note that many of these workshops have application deadlines in early March.

 

Two workshops from the InTeGrate project will address sustainability at two different scales: first at the level of departments, programs and degree pathways, and secondly in the design of individual courses. These workshops are designed to foster an integration of geoscience and other disciplines in the teaching of sustainability.

 

Programs that Bring Together Geoscience and Sustainability – May 23-25, 2012, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
 Application deadline: March 5, 2012
http://serc.carleton.edu/integrate/workshops/programs2012/index.html

 

Systems, Society, Sustainability and the Geosciences – July 24 – 26, 2012, Carleton College, Northfield, MN
 Application deadline: April 20, 2012
http://serc.carleton.edu/integrate/workshops/sustainability2012/index.html

 

The CLEAN project is offering two online workshops to promote effective strategies for teaching climate science. These workshops will include presentations, interactive demonstrations of successful classroom activities, and collaborative projects with other workshop participants.

 

Communicating Climate Science in the Classroom – April 2 – 11, 2012
 Application deadline: March 1, 2012
http://cleanet.org/clean/community/workshops/communication2012/index.html

 

Teaching Climate Complexity – May 7 – 16, 2012
 Application deadline: March 31, 2012
http://cleanet.org/clean/community/workshops/climate2012/index.html

 

 

Other workshops with upcoming application deadlines:

 

Teaching Environmental Geology – June 2-6, 2012, Montana State University, Bozeman MT
 Application deadline: March 1, 2012
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/environmental/workshop12/index.html

 

Teaching the Methods of Geoscience – June 27-30, 2012, Montana State University, Bozeman MT
 Application deadline March 30, 2012
http://serc.carleton.edu/integrate/workshops/methods2012/index.html

 

Workshop for Early Career Geoscience Faculty: Teaching, Research, and Managing Your Career – June 10-15 2012, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
Application deadline: March 1, 2012
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlycareer2012/index.html
Preparing for an Academic Career in the Geosciences - June 27-30, 2012 – University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Application deadline: March 8, 2012
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/careerprep2012/index.html

 

Please forward this announcement to interested colleagues.

 

Contact Cathy Manduca () with questions. Thank you!

 

 

Cathryn A. Manduca

Director, Science Education Resource Center

Executive Director, National Association of Geoscience Teachers

 

Carleton College

1 N College Street

Northfield MN  55057

507 222 7096

 

 

 

Climate Workshops for College Faculty

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2012 Workshops for Sustainability and Climate

The topics of sustainability and climate change offer important opportunities to engage students in science that is multidisciplinary, complex and societally relevant. Thus, we are pleased to announce a suite of workshops for college faculty addressing various aspects of sustainability and climate science in higher education. Note that many of these workshops have application deadlines in early March.

 

The CLEAN project is offering two online workshops to promote effective strategies for teaching climate science. These workshops will include presentations, interactive demonstrations of successful classroom activities, and collaborative projects with other workshop participants.

 

Communicating Climate Science in the Classroom – April 2 – 11, 2012
 Application deadline: March 1, 2012
http://cleanet.org/clean/community/workshops/communication2012/index.html

 

Teaching Climate Complexity – May 7 – 16, 2012
 Application deadline: March 31, 2012
http://cleanet.org/clean/community/workshops/climate2012/index.html

 

Two workshops from the InTeGrate project will address sustainability at two different scales: first at the level of departments, programs and degree pathways, and secondly in the design of individual courses. These workshops are designed to foster an integration of geoscience and other disciplines in the teaching of sustainability.

 

Programs that Bring Together Geoscience and Sustainability – May 23-25, 2012, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
 Application deadline: March 5, 2012
http://serc.carleton.edu/integrate/workshops/programs2012/index.html

 

Systems, Society, Sustainability and the Geosciences – July 24 – 26, 2012, Carleton College, Northfield, MN
 Application deadline: April 20, 2012
http://serc.carleton.edu/integrate/workshops/sustainability2012/index.html

 

 

Other workshops with upcoming application deadlines:

 

Teaching Environmental Geology – June 2-6, 2012, Montana State University, Bozeman
 Application deadline: March 1, 2012
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/environmental/workshop12/index.html

 

Teaching the Methods of Geoscience – June 27-30, 2012, Montana State University, Bozeman MT
 Application deadline March 30, 2012
http://serc.carleton.edu/integrate/workshops/methods2012/index.html

 

Workshop for Early Career Geoscience Faculty: Teaching, Research, and Managing Your Career – June 10-15 2012, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
Application deadline: March 1, 2012
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlycareer2012/index.html
Preparing for an Academic Career in the Geosciences - June 27-30, 2012 – University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Application deadline: March 8, 2012
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/careerprep2012/index.html

The Impact of Climate Geoengineering on Crop Yields

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In the face of several studies in recent years that have concluded that solar radiation management (SRM) geoengineering approaches might pose risks to food security, primarily by altering precipitation patterns, a new study in Nature Climate Change (J. Pongratz, Crop Yields in a Geoengineered Climate, Natural Climate Change, online, Jan. 22, 2012) seeks to assess the impacts of SRM on maize, wheat and rice production and yields. The study carried out three global climate simulations, including one with atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations of 400ppm (control), a climate with doubled atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, projected within this century under some scenarios, and a climate with doubled atmospheric carbon dioxide with sulphate aerosol concentrations set at levels that stabilize global temperatures at the control level.

Among the take-aways:

  1. In the simulation of doubled carbon dioxide concentrations relative to the control climate, there are small negative impacts on maize crop yields and production, and positive changes in wheat and rice, with warming causing most of the climate-related reductions in yield;
  2. SRM could lead to increases under a 2x atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration scenario, with declines in yield found only for rice in high latitudes
    • Maize, wheat and rice production would be generally higher under SRM, with especially beneficial impacts in terms of reversing projected losses of maize in northern mid-latitude regions under a 2x carbon dioxide concentration scenario;
  3. However, there may be more marked regional changes in productivity, both positive and negative
    • Individual small regions may experience reductions in yield that “may pose a risk to local food security if subsistence farming prevails and adaptation is not possible;”
    • Negative regional impacts may be primarily related to the effect of precipitation changes on yields, e.g. projected weakening of the Asian monsoon, with projected precipitation decrease of 10-14% in summers
  4. Changes in insolation and diffuse fraction associated with SRM deployment would likely yield additional positive benefits in terms of crop production

This would be an excellent student reading in a geoengineering module. Among the questions that could be asked:

  • Would it be acceptable to deploy a technology that provides benefits to most regions of the world in terms of food production even if there are some negative regional impacts? Would a system of compensation for projected crop losses tip the balance of equities in favor of SRM deployment?
  • While the study indicates that “multiple-model ensemble studies should be carried out to better characterize the effect of SRM,” given the abiding weaknesses of regional models, how confident can we be of results from such studies? What level of risk and uncertainty would be acceptable in deploying SRM technologies given potentially very negative impacts;