Snapshot: This second episode of a video podcast series, produced in partnership with the Ethical Schools podcast, includes a dramatized version of our case "Seeing Green" along with a discussion of the case led by Professor Meira Levinson. Should science teachers in communities that rely on the petroleum industry accommodate local concerns about the dangers of demonizing the very industry their town’s economy relies on? Or teach climate changes as the threat that scientists tell us it is?
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Podcast Description: What Would You Do?: Seeing Green explores the tensions that teachers face in teaching climate change given the often contentious and politically polarizing debate over climate science. A new teacher is surprised when so many of her students see climate change as a political issue rather than a scientific one and when complaints from students' parents land her in the principal's office. Especially in communities whose economy still relies on fossil fuels, how should teachers teach climate change? Do they take into account the views of the local community? Possibly adding a unit about petroleum engineering or coal scrubbing technology? Or does any accommodation represent dangerous pandering to people out of step with the consensus of the scientific community?
The podcast episode begins with a dramatization of the case, performed by a cast of actors.
After the case, a diverse group of experts dives into the ethical challenges that the case presents. Led by Professor Meira Levinson, the conversation includes Randall Curren of the University of Rochester, Shirley Edwards of the Ethics in Education Network, Tina Grotzer of Harvard University, and Sadie Sundhal of the University of Idaho. Their conversation explores the challenges of teaching scientific thinking, the important of community building in schools, and the important of teaching climate change in ways that encourage resilience and action rather than hopelessness.
Additional Resources:
- Click here to download the script of this case.
- Download the original case study. You can also visit the case page here on Justice in Schools.
