Working Group Goal:
The primary goal of this working group is to enhance high school students' understanding of phenology (nature’s calendar), how climate change is causing shifts, and the subsequent impacts on people. This involves identifying effective pedagogies for teaching phenology from a climate change perspective, determining the best emotional framing for long-term information retention/use, and producing and disseminating materials for classroom integration. The project will enable students to interact with the effects of global changes on ecosystems emerging from winter. The proposed intervention provides a detailed example of changing ecosystems and insights into the role emotions play in learning about climate change.

Ongoing Research:
We are developing an educational application called “PhenoWatch” for high school biology students. Starting in spring 2025, this tool will allow students to collect and enter phenology data, and graph intra- and inter-year phenological progressions using data from the National Phenology Network. In the proposed experimental study, high school biology classes will engage with "PhenoWatch" through lesson sequences framed in various ways, all supporting the achievement of Next Generation Science Standards Science and Engineering Practices. Student knowledge and skill development will be evaluated by group.

Researchers involved: