I developed an online toy climate model (www.carbonator.org) as a teaching tool with colleague Dr. Alex Sen Gupta to explore the climate implications of various scenarios ranging from the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change's scenario through to user defined scenarios (e.g., geoengineering). Carbonator allows for hypothesis testing and scenario analysis with differentiated functionality from novice (easy click options, drag lines and pop-up results) through to advanced user (import/export data for extended analysis) making this resource a useful tool from secondary through to research students. It allows students to control inputs such as fossil fuel emissions, aerosols and key geophysical variables (solar input, volcanic emissions etc) and examine its effects on outputs such as global temperature, sea level and acidification. From the numerous consultations and professional development activities that I have undertaken with educators, it was clear to me that this tool had to be open access without registration or login requirements which poses a significant barrier or disincentive to many users.  

Carbonator has been used in UNSW undergraduate teaching for MSCI0501 and MSCI3001. I have also created high school worksheets and lesson plans using this tool for NSW Syllabus and Australian Curriculum which are circulated through the Cabonator website, UNSW's Open Learning Platform, presented at teacher conferences (STANSW, CONASTA) and written a publication aimed at teachers. It is difficult to keep a record of all users of this open online tool but to date, over 40 NSW teachers have requested access to the Open Learning course and students from interstate have contacted me for additional help for school assignments which use Carbonator. Teachers and academics are spreading the word and sharing the resource of their own accord (see social media example below). I have also presented Carbonator at science conferences and it has gained traction at other universities. It is currently also being used at ANU in PHYS 2205.

Online resources such as this are particularly impactful through the COVID-19 crisis given the need to find online teaching solutions.