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From: Discovery Learning Research Center <[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2010 10:16:49 -0400
Subject: Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Science Education

The George Mason University, Center for Climate Change Communication
(http://climate.gmu.edu/) invites applications for a full-time
Postdoctoral Research Fellow to support a National Science Foundation (
NSF)-funded planning grant titled, Making the Global Local: Unusual
Weather Events as Climate Change Education Opportunities.
The goal of this project is to establish a national network of climate
and weather science organizations, and university research and teaching
programs, to engage, train and empower local broadcast meteorologists to
educate and inform the American public about climate change. The project
will integrate informal learning, mass communication and experiential
learning theories to develop and test new pedagogical approaches to
informal science education through frequent mass media exposure, linked
to real-world experience (i.e., the local weather). It will also adapt
and test conflict resolution theory and practice to engage
meteorologists, who reject the scientific consensus, and climate
scientists in constructive dialogue. Collaborating institutions include
the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, American
Meteorological Society, National Weather Association, American
Association of State Climatologists, American Geophysical Union, Climate
Central, National Environmental Education Foundation, and Yale and
Cornell universities.
The specific objectives of this planning grant are to: (1) identify the
resources, training and other forms of support that will enable
weathercasters to incorporate relevant information about climate change
into their broadcasts; (2) identify why some weathercasters remain
undecided about anthropogenic climate change, and develop related
curriculum and programs about climate science for them; (3) develop a
prototype conflict analysis and resolution process between
weathercasters who reject the scientific consensus and those who accept
it so as to understand their differences, their patterns of interaction,
and develop frameworks to help mediate their concerns; (4) develop
linkages with existing climate- and weather-related citizen science
programs to enable weathercasters to involve their viewers in climate
and weather science; and (5) identify curriculum and curriculum
development needs for teaching climate science to undergraduate
meteorology students and certificate candidates. The end product of this
planning grant will be a five-year implementation plan that shall be
submitted to NSF for funding consideration.
Candidates must have a Ph.D. in a relevant social or learning science
discipline; and a track record of published journal articles and/or
conference papers on relevant topics of inquiry including climate change
communication, science communication and/or formal or informal science
education. Experience in survey research, qualitative data collection,
strategic (program) planning, professional development and climate
science is preferred. Additional skills required include competence in
planning and multitasking, attention to detail, excellent organizational
skills, ability to communicate verbally and in writing, and the ability
to adapt to the changing demands of a dynamic research environment.
http://www.climatechangecommunication.org/


- Cianán


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Cianán B. Russell, Ph.D.
Center for Workshops in the Chemical Sciences (CWCS) Program Associate
http://chemistry.gsu.edu/CWCS/

Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
901 Atlantic Drive
Atlanta, GA 30332-0400
Email: [log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
Phone: (404) 385-8166
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