{"id":31683,"date":"2019-07-11T16:11:08","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T21:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=31683"},"modified":"2019-07-15T11:48:28","modified_gmt":"2019-07-15T16:48:28","slug":"requiring-schools-to-teach-climate-change-risks-backlash-in-oklahoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2019\/07\/11\/requiring-schools-to-teach-climate-change-risks-backlash-in-oklahoma\/","title":{"rendered":"Requiring schools to teach climate change risks backlash in Oklahoma"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/649779782&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Melissa Lau is preparing for the coming school year. She teaches 6th grade science in Piedmont, just northwest of Oklahoma City. Inside her classroom, she\u2019s laid out over thirty cross sections from the trunks of red cedar trees. Each ring represents one year of growth. Lau calls them \u201ctree cookies.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><b>\u201c<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once I get them cleaned up a little bit more they&#8217;re going to show students a historical record of that dry years are getting drier and our wet years are getting wetter,\u201d Lau said.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The trees grew near a Mesonet station in Guthrie. Lau wants her students to match the varying tree rings to the station\u2019s rainfall data from the past 25 years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThis is a very concrete representation of the abstract data and numbers,\u201d Lau explained.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Extreme weather patterns are projected to intensify in Oklahoma due to changes in the climate caused by rising carbon emissions. According to the latest <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nca2018.globalchange.gov\/chapter\/23\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">National Climate Assessment<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, alternating flooding and drought events have already increased over the last 50 years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lau says she has been educating her students about the connection between fossil fuel combustion and climate change for three years, though she isn\u2019t required to. Oklahoma\u2019s K-12 science standards are based in part on the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextgenscience.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Next Generation Science Standards<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, national guidelines developed in 2013 that recommend teaching the concept in sixth grade, but Oklahoma left it out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/sde.ok.gov\/sites\/ok.gov.sde\/files\/Oklahoma%20Academic%20Standards%20for%20Science.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oklahoma\u2019s standards<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> do include language on weather patterns, changes in the environment and variations in regional climate conditions, as well as human activity and its effect on the planet. However, teaching about how fossil fuel combustion relates to these broad categories remains optional.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_31685\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 698px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-31685\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/07\/ngss-6th-grade-672x510.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"698\" height=\"530\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/07\/ngss-6th-grade-672x510.png 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/07\/ngss-6th-grade.png 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/07\/ngss-6th-grade-768x582.png 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/07\/ngss-6th-grade-150x114.png 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/07\/ngss-6th-grade-300x228.png 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/07\/ngss-6th-grade-620x470.png 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/07\/ngss-6th-grade-1424x1080.png 1424w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 698px) 100vw, 698px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Next Generation Science Standards include a section on \u201cEarth and Human Activity\u201d for sixth graders that explicitly addresses \u201cthe major role that human activities play in causing the rise in global temperatures.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_31686\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 727px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-31686\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/07\/OK-6th-grade-672x492.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"727\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/07\/OK-6th-grade-672x492.png 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/07\/OK-6th-grade.png 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/07\/OK-6th-grade-768x562.png 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/07\/OK-6th-grade-150x110.png 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/07\/OK-6th-grade-300x220.png 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/07\/OK-6th-grade-620x454.png 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/07\/OK-6th-grade-1476x1080.png 1476w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 727px) 100vw, 727px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oklahoma\u2019s 6th grade \u201cEarth and Human Activity\u201d standard differs significantly from the NGSS equivalent (pictured above). It does not mention fossil fuels, rising global temperatures or climate change.<\/p>\n<\/div><p><b>Past Resistance<\/b><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every six years the education department assembles a group of educators from across the state to review and revise state science standards, but state lawmakers have the final say over these education guidelines.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even without the explicit connection between industrial carbon emissions and rising temperatures, some lawmakers still had misgivings about today\u2019s standards when they went before the state legislature in 2014.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There&#8217;s been a lot of recent criticisms in some sectors as to what some consider hyperbole relative to climate change,\u201d remarked <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">former Republican state representative <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mark McCullough <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in a committee hearing on May 12, 2014.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">McCoullough was questioning Tiffany Neill. At the time, she was the director of science education for Oklahoma.<\/span><\/p><p><b>\u201c<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you believe that the sections section specifically relating to weather and climate, particularly at the at the earlier ages, as it&#8217;s emphasized here in the new standards could potentially be utilized to inculcate into some pretty young impressionable minds a fairly one sided view as to that controversial subject?\u201d McCoullough asked Neill.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">McCoullough wasn\u2019t the only lawmaker who pushed back. There was support in both legislative chambers for two separate resolutions rejecting the standards, though they ultimately failed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2019\/04\/22\/714262267\/most-teachers-dont-teach-climate-change-4-in-5-parents-wish-they-did\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A recent NPR survey<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> showed sixty-six percent of parents believe should teach kids about climate change and its impacts, but among Republicans that number drops to just 49 percent. In a red state like Oklahoma, that division could lead to a political battle as the State Department of Education reconsiders what public school students should learn as part of their science education.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><b>The Next Round<\/b><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Neill is now the Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction, and she\u2019s facilitating the current round of science standard revisions. She says teachers are free to teach about fossil fuels and climate change if they want to.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><b>\u201c<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every teacher is able to utilize the existing standards to make determinations about teaching anything related to climate that they so choose, and that is really, I believe, where we want the authority for much of the curriculum decisions to lie,\u201d Neill said. \u201cThe Oklahoma standards focus on a breadth of ways in which climate is changing, and looking at the variety of mechanisms that may be causing that.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lau, the teacher from Piedmont, uses the current standards to teach about human-caused climate change, but she says she knows many science teachers who\u2019d rather not broach the subject. The NPR survey supports her claim. Polling showed less than half of teachers in the United States discuss climate change in the classroom.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI&#8217;m lucky where I am in Piedmont. The community and administration is extremely supportive, but I know that there are other science teachers in the state that avoid it for the reasons of just not wanting to have to deal with the drama,\u201d Lau said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lau is one of the educators selected to participate in the revision process. She believes adding more explicit language around fossil fuels and climate change would give science teachers something to fall back on if they encounter resistance from parents or administrators. But she worries it would prompt a political backlash.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cLegislators may just see the term climate change and be like \u2018I am against that. My party is against that. I don&#8217;t want to support that, so therefore, I&#8217;m not going to pass your science standards,\u2019\u201d Lau speculated. \u201cThe struggle is do we write our standards for somebody who is not scientifically literate or do we write them for science teachers?\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Twenty-six other states adopted the recommended national standards including language showing an explicit relationship between fossil fuels and the changing climate. Oklahoma\u2019s revision process is just starting, and new science standards are expected to go before the legislature next spring.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\ufeffMelissa Lau is preparing for the coming school year. She teaches 6th grade science in Piedmont, just northwest of Oklahoma City. Inside her classroom, she\u2019s laid out over thirty cross sections from the trunks of red cedar trees. Each ring represents one year of growth. Lau calls them \u201ctree cookies.\u201d\u00a0\u201cOnce I get them cleaned up [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":31684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,491],"tags":[549,1111,1109,1110,1112,983,1113],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31683"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31704,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31683\/revisions\/31704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}