Catalyzing Climate Action in the Classroom

by: Julia Sims , Senior Research Associate at SubjectToClimate

Common Google searches related to climate change include phrases like “climate change impacts on weather patterns,” “climate change and sea level rise,” and “climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.” None of the top searches mention climate change education; indeed, education is a mere side piece, if it is included in the conversation at all when we talk about solving the climate crisis.

However, by de-prioritizing or leaving out climate education altogether, we are doing ourselves a disservice in the quest for solutions. A peer-reviewed study found that a year-long community college course about carbon emissions and climate change decreased the students’ individual yearly CO2 emissions by 2.86 tons.

Their analysis establishes that if similar education programs were applied at scale, the effect on carbon emissions could equal that of widespread rooftop solar technology or electric vehicle use. Moreover, if all secondary school students in high to middle-income countries experienced comparable results, climate change education could decrease individual yearly carbon emissions by 18.8 tons by 2050, a larger reduction than investments in electric vehicles or offshore wind power.?

Perhaps one reason we see these striking results is that education affects many different sectors. In the study mentioned above, changes in transportation decisions accounted for 40% of the reduction in carbon emissions, with waste reduction, food choices and home energy use accounting for 33%, 13% and 12% (respectively). In addition to reducing emissions, climate change education often motivates schools to green the operation of their facilities, and it also increases the resilience and adaptive capacities of its students.?

It’s worth noting that not all climate education is created equal. Before starting SubjectToClimate , co-founders Margaret Wang, David Jaffe, and David Rhodes were asking educators about best practices and specific obstacles in teaching about climate change. They found that educators did not feel confident about incorporating climate change into what they were teaching; this sentiment was especially true among non-science teachers. Educators also mentioned that they had little to no professional development on how to teach about the subject. Perhaps most of all, teachers responded that they did not have the time to look for and vet resources on climate change; they were just trying to keep their students up to par with basic skills and get lesson plans on the books for the next day. As a result of these obstacles, even teachers who cared about climate change and were concerned about educating their students on the topic often did not teach climate change very often or at all.?

These findings mirror more recent data - in a survey of over 700 educators, NAAEE found that only 39% reported they were teaching about climate change, while many administrators believed climate change was being taught, as seen below:?

In the survey, only 1 in 5 teachers reported feeling very informed about climate change, and around 57% said they were somewhat prepared to teach about climate change. Around half responded that they sometimes or never have educational resources on climate change.?

With this in mind, SubjectToClimate was created as a nonprofit online connector for K-12 educators of all subjects to find credible and engaging materials on climate change at no cost. Here, we emphasize interdisciplinary climate change education - ALL teachers, of ALL subjects and ALL grade levels can integrate climate change into their lessons. By emphasizing interdisciplinary connections, we can more accurately portray the intricacy and complexity of the issue, while better equipping students to eventually tackle the challenges of the climate crisis.

Integrating climate education can be as simple as assigning a text that mentions climate change for an assignment on reading comprehension or doing a math problem that involves graphing temperature change over time. The idea is not to take climate science and teach about it in every class - rather, we aim to encourage gradual, developmentally appropriate incorporations of climate change in each classroom.

Another crucial tenet of SubjectToClimate’s work is that every resource is fully vetted by a climate scientist. When teachers come to our site to pick out a lesson plan for the next day, a video to play in class, or a news article to assign as homework, they don’t have to worry about whether or not the information in the resource is accurate or up-to-date. An educator has also evaluated each resource for engagement and pedagogical usefulness. For our lesson plans, educator reviewers use a verified rubric that incorporates tenets such as environmental justice and social emotional learning (i.e., making sure that kids are learning about climate change in a way that doesn’t heighten their anxiety about it). In addition, all of our resources are aligned to national education standards (think NGSS and Common Core), if not to state standards. Standards alignment helps teachers integrate climate change into concepts about which they are already required to teach.

Finally, our lesson plans emphasize action, featuring suggestions for ways that students can get involved, sometimes even incorporating projects such as writing a letter to an elected official. We also aim to make resources as place-based as possible; this approach is reflected in our work on creating state Hubs in new areas of the U.S., each of which emphasizes curating lesson plans written by teachers in that state about local issues. By emphasizing place-based, action-oriented climate education, we aim to inspire hope rather than anxiety and prepare students to become climate advocates.?

Our most direct goal is to increase the frequency with which teachers teach about climate change by handing them resources that are high-quality, engaging, fully vetted, and free. We believe that doing so will lead more students to become advocates for and engage in climate action. We hope that teachers will have a ripple effect that will extend outwards to students, their family, friends and peers, and beyond into communities, states, etc. All kids have to attend school - we hope to leverage this guaranteed, semi-captive audience to create systemic shifts in climate action, from the ground up.?

*This article was originally published on MCJ's Substack