The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) founded Project 2061 in 1985 to help all Americans become literate in science, mathematics, and technology.

In recent years, Project 2061 has collaborated with NOAA to define and promote climate literacy. With NOAA funding in 2007, Project 2061 provided a workshop that began the process of defining climate literacy. Project 2061 later worked with NOAA on the development of the guide Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science. (See the related interview with CPO's Frank Niepold.)

Building on these efforts, Project 2061 is excited to announce its newest ventures in the area of climate science literacy. Thanks to two new grants from NOAA and NASA, Project 2061 will provide science educators with free, online access to high-quality resources designed to increase middle school students' weather and climate literacy. The teaching resources, including classroom activities and assessment tools, will cover a variety of earth, ocean, and atmospheric phenomena. The Climate Program Office's Communications and Education Program will be advising both grant activities.

With a three-year $750,000 grant from NOAA, Project 2061 will develop an online collection of resources for climate literacy based on data from NOAA's global observations of oceans, atmosphere, land surface, and the biosphere. The resources will be carefully aligned to the learning goals in the Climate Literacy guide and in national and state science content standards. The resources will include a range of real-world phenomena (e.g., objects, systems, events) and representations (e.g., models, diagrams, simulations) designed to illustrate key climate concepts. The resources will also take into account students' common misconceptions related to climate and climate change.

For more on the new grants, read the AAAS news story.

Contact:
Frank Niepold
301-734-1244
Frank.Niepold@noaa.gov