The subject of climate change is complicated for educators and students alike.
Hoping to help teachers fully understand and build curriculums on the important topic, the National Park Foundation began funding workshops inside national parks across the country. Founded in 2009, the Parks Climate Challenge program awarded Glacier National Park one of eight grants this year.
Working with local park officials, the Glacier Institute will hold a four-day workshop June 25-28 for 20 middle school and high school teachers from the valley and across the country. The workshop will provide teachers a hands-on, science-based field course inside Glacier. Teachers will be presented with materials and take field trips throughout the park to learn how resources are being affected by climate change.
“This is a great opportunity for teachers to learn and work in the field with park researchers,” Glacier National Park Education Specialist Laura Law said.
Between 1910 and 1980, more than two-thirds of Glacier National Park’s estimated 150 glaciers had disappeared. Research showed surviving glaciers were also significantly reduced during that time. If the current rate of recession continues, park scientists estimate there will not be any glaciers left in Glacier Park by 2030.
Debate has raged over climate change’s origins, but the intent of the workshop is not to wade into the controversy, according to the executive director of Glacier Institute.
“We’re not into advocacy,” Joyce Baltz said. “As the hosts of this workshop we’re the teachers who will instruct both sides of the issue and let teachers take that back to their classrooms. We want to instruct them on how to teach this topic because it is controversial and hard to speak about.”
Teachers applied for the workshops by May and, if accepted, they were provided room, board and travel expenses. They are also given stipends to help implement the materials and information they learn at the workshop in their classrooms. The Parks Climate Challenge program is made possible through support from individual donors and the Inner Spark Foundation, a nonprofit charitable organization based in San Francisco and listed as an independently affiliated group by FindtheBest, an online data-gathering site for nonprofits.
“We are proud to have received the grant and extend this outstanding opportunity for teachers to attend a science- and field-based workshop in Glacier National Park,” Baltz said.
For more information, visit www.parksclimatechallenge.org.