Aiming to boost understanding of global climate change issues among undergraduates, NASA has awarded nearly $500,000 to Dickinson College for a program that will reach community college students as well as four-year undergrads.
The Carlisle college will collaborate with Montgomery College in Maryland, Central Pennsylvanias Community College (HACC), Montgomery County Community College and Northampton Community College. The schools are already connected by Dickinsons Community College Partnership program, which prepares and aids honors students for transfer to Dickinson after completion of their two-year degree.
“The community college link is important. NASA is interested in reaching as many students as possible,” says Neil Leary, director of Dickinsons Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education. A large portion of the workforce of the future comes from two-year programs. We could reach potentially 60,000 to 70,000 students. Leary says that the program is interdisciplinary, rather than purely science-based. We want students to examine how climate variability affect humans, he explains, citing food security, economic development, transportation planning and forestry as examples. In international business classes, students should understand carbon permit trading.
The three year program will reach twenty college faculty members with summer training sessions. Undergraduates will also be selected for summer workshops that use NASAs climate change simulation modeling for research experiments. The Center for Climate System Research and the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center, both at Columbia University, will assist with training activities.
Source: Neil Leary, Dickinson College
Writer: Chris OToole