Following the adoption Tuesday of new science education guidelines, school children in the US will\u2014for the first time\u2014be taught about global warming, an issue which has dramatically altered their planet’s climate and has severe consequences for themselves and future generations. <\/p>\n
New science education recommendations aim to encourage real world investigations into subjects, including climate change. (Photo: Halle Miller via Ohio Sea Grant Lab via Flickr) However, the final guidelines fall short of making explicit the connection between rampant climate change and the human forces behind them. “It’s buried at best,” said Mark McCaffrey, policy director for the National Center for Science Education, referring to the role of fossil fuels, industrialization, and patterns of modern consumption and pollution.<\/p>\n
Known as the Next Generation Science Standards, the new teaching standards were developed by a group of 26 state governments and organizations representing scientists and teachers and, though not mandatory, are the first broad national recommendations since 1996.<\/p>\n
Though many are heralding the introduction of climate change as a core aspect of science education for middle and high school students, others bemoan the watering down of earlier drafts which introduced the subject in kindergarten and made important connections between human-caused greenhouse gas emissions and climate changes.<\/p>\n
The Guardian reports:<\/p>\n
The standards are also much vaguer about the causes of climate change. An earlier version for primary school students had said explicitly that human activity was a driver of climate change. “It’s not as explicit in terms of the connection between human activities and climate change,” [Mario Molina, deputy director at the Alliance for Climate Education] said.<\/p>\n