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The Fate of Water: Teaching Students Climate Change in the Classroom and in the Field

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Photo of Todd Laporte
Todd La Porte: 鈥楳uch like in climate change policy, if we can identify shared values, we can ultimately find common ground.鈥 Photo by Creative Services

Originally published on February 5, 2021

I chose to study water sources, because I found the idea to be somewhat novel,鈥 said . 鈥淚t鈥檚 been interesting to see how all of these different aspects of climate change interact with one another and how the various effects reverberate through society.鈥

Associate Professor La Porte is addressing climate change through the lens of community. To do that, La Porte is studying climate change adaption policy inside and outside of the classroom鈥攁nd he鈥檚 taking his undergraduate and graduate students with him to discover the effects of climate change from those directly affected by it.

Originally from the San Francisco Bay area, La Porte has a natural affinity for the Chesapeake Bay, not far from the Schar School campuses. 鈥淲e鈥檙e studying how climate change is affecting people around bays, estuaries, and wetlands,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e want to understand what happens to people who are displaced鈥 by the effects of climate change.

La Porte plans to work with students to create an 鈥渁tlas鈥 of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. 鈥淭he idea is to map rising water levels and create a common frame of reference from inside these communities,鈥 he said.

鈥淭he climate atlas is a way to reach people,鈥 said La Porte. 鈥淲e spend too much time looking at data that other people collect. It鈥檚 not wrong, but it misses a big part of these issues.鈥

He hopes to send students into the field to gather firsthand information from community members experiencing these changes.

In the classroom, La Porte is a conversation facilitator and an expert at diffusing the tense situations that sometimes arise. 鈥淧eople sometimes misunderstand the assumptions of their classmates,鈥 he said. 鈥淢uch like in climate change policy, if we can identify shared values, we can ultimately find common ground.鈥 (La Porte , Staying Alive in the Climate Crisis: Climate Politics and Policy.)

Students seem to enjoy his classroom demeanor.

鈥淒r. La Porte is extremely approachable,鈥 said Leslie Malher, a student from Paris, France. 鈥淗e emphasizes our ideas in conjunction with the readings, and very few professors are able to facilitate discussion the way he does.鈥

鈥淭eaching energizes me,鈥 said La Porte. 鈥淢y job is to get the ball rolling, but it is extremely gratifying when students want to express their own ideas and discuss these issues in my classroom.鈥

Schar School fact: The school will provide $1 million in scholarship funds to students entering in the academic year 2020-21.