by Lynne Cherry and Gary Braasch
For grades 4-9 (and their teachers and parents!)
As Environmental Education professor David Sobel writes in this book’s introduction: “The global climate change wave is cresting and it’s about to crash on public schools. Empowerment needs to be the core element of the approach.”
Robert Coontz, deputy editor of Science Magazine wrote:
“This beautiful and informative book fills a major gap in environmental writing for children. It covers a wide range of research, defining technical terms gracefully and naturally as they arise. The overall tone—urgent without being shrill, hopeful without being complacent—strikes me as just right. I happily recommend it.”
Across the nation, teachers, administrators, and parents are scrambling to find age appropriate materials that scientifically explain global warming and its effects to children. Renowned children’s author Lynne Cherry and award-winning photojournalist Gary Braasch have written this book to empower children who will inherit a planet that is changing rapidly from the past. This book provides the education platform to help today’s youth understand and effectively fight climate change and transform our world for the better.
How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate is based on Gary Braasch’s coffee-table book Earth Under Fire: How Global Warming is Changing the World. Braasch traveled around the world for 8 years documenting evidence of climate change and following climate scientists. He found that they are “really cool people” that kids will like--"detectives” unraveling mysteries about the natural world and traveling to amazing places.
The book depicts scientists at work; teaches children the language, methods and process of science; imparts knowledge of technological tools and data collection; provides methods and ideas for school and home projects about weather and climate; describes and encourages participation in citizen-science programs; shows how each child can immediately reduce their carbon footprint and inspires them to do so by showing the effects of many kids working together already influencing communities to change.. Through the citizen science projects in the book, students see other young “citizen- scientists”. And by seeing how scientific information leads to informed decision-making, students will understand the excitement, utility, and practical applications of careers in science.
The book includes a useful reference section and there is a companion Teacher Guide with classroom ideas and even more information.
See a preview of the book at its website. You can also download a PDF with reviews.
