Electric Co-op Today

A Colorado G&T has joined with a national public-private professional development institute to offer middle- and high school teachers a neutral approach to climate change education.

Teachers learn about the complexities of ocean sequestration at a training institute. (Photo By: Keystone Center)

The G&T will pay tuition, lodging and a stipend for teachers selected by each of its 44 member co-ops to attend the June 28-30 session on how to help middle- and high schoolers explore the scientific, economic and social impacts of climate change.

Hundreds of teachers across the country have attended the institute, “CSI: Climate Status Investigations,” since it began in the mid-2000s, mostly under the sponsorship of investor-owned utilities and government contractors.

But the June training “will be the first time we’re doing it for co-ops and munis,” said Jeremy Kranowitz, director of education at the Keystone Center, the think tank working with Tri-State G&T, which also designed the curriculum in partnership with the federal government.

For Tri-State G&T, it’s the power supplier’s first foray into extensive teacher training. Previously, it’s offered basic electric education to fourth-graders and some agricultural mini-workshops, said Ginette Dennis, senior manager of external relations.

“Tri-State’s board and senior management support the project as a means of leveraging funding to help shape and promote a balanced perspective on important and complicated subject matter,” Dennis explained.

The curriculum, which also gets funding from the Department of Energy and the National Energy Technology Laboratory, was appealing to the G&T because it’s “a new way of approaching a contentious issue,” said Dennis.

“You’re left with making up your own mind rather than being taught [climate change] is here or not here.” She also said that participants will come away with teaching strategies on how to remove their own biases in order to involve critical thinking.

Carbon sequestration is a big focus in the program’s multidisciplinary lesson plans and lab activities. But the curriculum “also talks about other options for carbon emissions mitigation,” said John Litynski, a carbon sequestration technology manager at NETL. Because teachers get training on inquiry-based methods, the program “is not trying to convince [them] that one option is better than the other.”

Tags: Climate Change, Local Initiatives