"By the time today's K-12 students grow up, the challenges posed by climate change are expected to be severe and sweeping. Now, for the first time, new federal science standards due out this month will recommend that U.S. public school students learn about this climatic shift taking place."

"Mark McCaffrey of the National Center for Science Education says the lessons will fill a big gap.

'Only 1 in 5 [students] feel like they've got a good handle on climate change from what they've learned in school,' he says, adding that surveys show two-thirds of students say they're not learning much at all about it. 'So the state of climate change education in the U.S. is abysmal.'

We all learn the water cycle. But how many can draw a picture of the carbon cycle?"

Jennifer Ludden reports for NPR's Morning Edition March 27, 2013. [2]