The Science and Narratives of Climate Change

Discovery Core Experience: NW & VLPA Courses

B CORE 119 A (NW) or 120 E (VLPA)

60-Second Syllabus: The Science & Narratives of Climate Change

About This Course:

This course examines the climate crisis as expressed through scientific, political, historical and literary/cultural frames. Students will develop strategies for communicating about climate and participating in solutions and will incorporate “World Building Strategies” to imagine how we might avert catastrophic impacts if we address challenges now.

Your Instructors

For the last 15+ years Miriam Bertram has been immersed in the science of climate change through my position with the Program on Climate Change at UW Seattle. She enjoys finding new ways of engaging the public with climate change, and in 2011 began teaching undergraduates at Cornish College of the Arts, developing new courses that bridge the science of climate with other ways of thinking. Now at UW Bothell she’s teamed up with Dr. Campbell, a lecturer in the Division of Biological Sciences, School of STEM at UWB. Dr Campbell tremendously enjoy teaching in the introductory biology series, which she’s done for the last 10 years. Her research interests include the evolution of New World riodinid butterflies, though more recently she’s focused on long-term monitoring to track changes among North American butterfly population sizes and distribution in response to climate and land use changes.

What Will We Do in the Class?

Each week you will create a list of ideas from our course material that resonates, surprises, or baffles you. These ideas be discussed and responded to. In teams, you will select a short story or novel focused on climate issue and will work to identify the fundamental climate change-induced issue depicted in the story (drought, sea level rise, etc.) and how society in the story has responded to the issue. Using collaborative world building strategies, your team will create your own vision for how society can avert the outcomes described in the fiction. You will become well-versed (expert!) in a specific solution to climate change, while also understanding the causes and impacts (human, environmental) and connections.

Professor Miriam Bertram, PhD (She/Her)

About Professor Bertram:

  • Assistant Director Program on Climate Change (2017-present)
  • Affiliate Instructor, Physical Sciences, School of STEM (2020-present)

I am the Assistant Director for the UW Program on Climate Change (PCC). I work with the PCC Director and advisory boards, advise undergraduates interested in pursing the climate minor and graduate students as they define their Graduate Certificate in Climate Science capstone projects.

I am responsible for maintaining the PCC office and website, program budget and communications, and event creation. I also enjoy developing new interdisciplinary ways of incorporating science into curricula, workshop development and teaching.

Contact:

Professor Dana Campbell, PhD (She/Her)

About Professor Campbell:

My favorite part about teaching is connecting with you students, and I really hope that you will help me get to know you. My research interests are rooted in butterfly evolution. I’m involved in Community Science programs to monitor location and abundance of butterflies to create data support for programs across North America.

I have two daughters (one a senior in high school, one a senior in college) a husband, and a little puppy.

I look forward to a fun and interesting quarter with you! It’s going to different from your run-of-the-mill college education so try not to forget to: Come talk or get help whenever you need, breathe, have patience, appreciate others, wash your hands, do something kind today, consider your carbon footprint, vote!

Contact: