Climate is an ideal topic for interdisciplinary education. Essential environmental concepts and everyday observations of weather and water offer natural extensions into the physical, chemical, biological, geographical, and social dimensions of Earth System Science. Making these connections enables comprehension of regional and global climate regimes.

In 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its fourth comprehensive assessment of Earth’s Climate. This publication includes the efforts of over 2,500 scientific reviewers, 800 contributing authors and 450 lead authors from 130 different countries.
There are four parts to the report:
       The AR4 (IPCC Fourth Assessment Report) Synthesis Report
       Working Group I Report "The Physical Science Basis"
       Working Group II Report "Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability”
       Working Group III Report "Mitigation of Climate Change"

Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts, the IPCC laid the foundation for measures that are needed to counteract climate change but left a chasm between the well-documented evidence presented in the report and the public’s ability to comprehend climate change mechanisms. This course will help bridge this climate literacy chasm by clarifying the graphs and topics presented in the summary of Physical Science Basis report developed by Working Group I.

Content development for this course was guided by the Climate Literacy Framework set out by NOAA and NSF and therefore linked to the following essential principles:
	1) Life on Earth has been shaped by, depends on, and affects climate
	2) We understand the climate system through observation and modeling
	3) The Sun is the Source of all energy on Earth
	4) Earth’s Weather & Climate system are the result of complex interactions between land, ocean, ice and atmosphere
	5) Weather and Climate vary over time and space
	6) Recent climate change is very likely due to human activities
	7) Earth’s climate system is influenced by human decisions, which are complex and involve economic costs & social values

Registration information

This professional development course for middle and high school science teachers was developed collaboratively by University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty and staff from the following departments:     Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS)     Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC)     Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS)     Center for Climatic Research (CCR) and     Geology and Geophysics (G&G)