- February 02, 2026
- By Jason P. Dinh
The University of Maryland will offer a new minor in climate change fluency to equip students with knowledge to assess scientific evidence and policies related to climate change and apply it to their careers. Beginning in Spring 2026, the minor is open to all undergraduate students except those in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science (AOSC), where it is based.
“When I picture the potential audience of students, I felt like they wanted to know more about climate change, but the classes were inaccessible to them because of math and science prerequisites,” said Alexandra Jones, an assistant clinical professor and director of the AOSC undergraduate program at UMD.
The goal is to train a climate-literate workforce: future journalists who will cover climate change, architects navigating building and zoning regulations altered by rising sea levels, investment bankers who assess climate risk for companies, and public health practitioners who will combat diseases that expand their range on a warming planet.
AOSC Professor and Chair Sumant Nigam said the minor will equip students with skills in critical scientific thinking, which they can use to assess claims of climate change attribution or denial in their major fields of study.
“Students will gain a more nuanced, science-infused perspective, so that people are not talking so glibly about climate change,” Nigam said.
The new minor requires a pair of core courses with no science or math prerequisites: “Causes and Consequences of Global Change,” followed by “Climate Change—Cutting Through the Noise.” Climate change fluency minors will also take at least three electives, two of which must be at the upper level. Offered through AOSC with cross-listings in the Department of Geology and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, this coursework may explore the ocean’s role in the climate system, climate change mitigation, climate data visualization, climate attribution of extreme events and more.