In this hands-on workshop participants will learn how to implement a localized simulation, iPlan, to examine both the impacts of climate change and to engage in inquiry and deliberation on how to mitigate these impacts locally. In iPlan, students play the role of a consultant working with a local city or county to review and revise their zoning plan. Teachers can set the simulation to focus on any city or local area in the US. The simulation includes key indicators that illustrate how land use, in the form of actual zoning codes, can have social, environmental and economic impacts locally. Consultants then create a plan for changing the land use codes (e.g., more green space) to address the impacts of climate change. Once they submit their plan they see projected impacts of their revised land use plan on key indicators (e.g., housing) and get feedback from a panel of different stakeholder groups. Session attendees will participate in activities from the simulation and will be provided with numerous curricular resources for use in their own classes. iPlan can be adapted for any local area on a range of climate related issues suitable for a civics, geography, environmental studies or science classroom. We will also engage in discussions of how to integrate the simulation into your course or as part of an interdisciplinary project. Finally, we will include strategies for using the simulation to have students deliberate potential mitigation efforts for creating climate resiliency in your local communities .
In this session you will:
- Learn how to teach with localized simulations.
- Learn how to integrate interdisciplinary teaching across science and civic education.
- Develop a functional understanding of how to use the iPlan simulation and adapt it for your own class.
