SMOGEE

Students as Mentors and Owners of Geoscience and Environmental Education (SMOGEE): The Global Warming Roadshow

SMOGEE is a dynamic, three-phase, tiered mentoring program that selects and empowers 11th and 12th graders from a public school science magnet program to teach well-known and tested climate change curricula to 7th graders from a local feeder school. SMOGEE is based on the premise that more capable high school students who serve as mentors can challenge and extend younger students’ efforts to understand science; in particular, climate change and global warming. Throughout all three phases, students will be supported by an expert team consisting of university scientists and science educators, secondary science teachers, and museum educators.

The tested curriculum is based primarily on Global Warming and the Greenhouse Effect (Great Explorations in Math and Science, 1990). The expert team will work with students to supplement and further develop this 15 year old curriculum with recent data, which will help model the dynamic nature of science. The students involved in this project will be encouraged think like climatologist and explore the driving questions:

• How do we know the earth has experienced climate change in the past, including the ice ages and the age of the dinosaurs?
• How do we know that humans have an impact on climate?

During Tier I, ten 11th and 12th grade students from a local School will participate in a six day summer workshop at IUPUI. The students will work with the expert team to better understand and further develop their understanding of a climate change curriculum and effective pedagogical approaches that can be used in the 7th grade science classroom. The ten students will be subdivided into 5 student pairs. Each student pair will focus on and be responsible for preparing to teach one aspect of climate change to the middle school students.

During Tier II, the 10 workshop graduates will become mentors for 25 to 30 8th graders at a local Middle School. With the support of the expert team, these 11th and 12th graders will travel to the middle school several times a week to teach a five week climate unit during the fall semester of the following year. Each of the 5 student pairs will teach one aspect of climate change unit to the 8th graders. For example, one of the student pairs will guide the 8th graders as they use the “Dinosphere” exhibit, to further explore climate change throughout geological time. The unit will culminate with both groups of students working together to create an interactive climate change exhibit for 7th graders (Tier III).

During Tier III the 11th and 12th grade student mentors will work with the 7th grade students to create a portable exhibit -- The Global Warming Road Show, which will be presented to 7th grade students from two local middle schools. The Tier 1 and Tier 2 students will be encouraged to develop a theme that will engage the Tier 3 students in the Road Show. Currently, we are contemplating having one 7th grade class at a time visit the Road Show. If the middle school follows a 45 minutes schedule, we anticipate approximately 35 minutes of station time, which will allow 7 minutes for each group at each station. Both a Tier 1 and Tier 2 student will be present at each station to support Tier 3 students in this experience.

Why Global Warming?

Due to intense media attention, global warming has become a prominent topic for public debate that relies on an individual’s scientific understanding. For secondary students, this topic provides an outstanding teachable moment: the processes leading to climate change are straightforward but the net rate of impact and human response are complex.

Global warming, as part of Earth's dynamic climate, provides the framework for students to explore key earth processes and systems, such as feedback loops, energy, ice sheet melting, ocean circulation and sea level changes, climatic history, paleontology, and evolutionary adaptations to climate.

What are the Goals?

The SMOGEE project has four major outcomes:

• Increase student interest in geoscience careers
• Provide students a progressively depper understanding of climate change and global warming
• Increase student interest in applying to college, and enrolling in colleges with geoscience programs
• Promote further collaboration between IUPUI and public schools

Who is Involved?

Department of Earth Sciences (IUPUI)

• Dr. Gabriel Filippelli, professor and chairman
• Jennifer Nelson, lecturer
• Chris Thomas, lecturer

School of Education (IUPUI)

• Dr. Dwight Schuster , assistant professor
• Dr. Elee Wood, assistant professor

Center for Urban and Multicultural Education (Evaluation)

• Dr. Joshua Smith, assistant professor

Public Schools

• Two highly qualified science teachers

This project is funded through the National Science Foundation Geoscience Education program, grant 06-07575. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Portions of the webpage were taken from:
Schuster, D., Thomas, C., & Filippelli, G. (2006). Creating an informed citizenry through SMOGEE-- Students as Mentors and Owners of Geoscience and Environmental Education: The Global Warming Road Show. Poster presented at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, December 13, San Francisco.