This resource is a professional development template for facilitating synchronous learning for educators based on shared reading of a book. This template showcases a book group focused on the essay anthology All We Can Save. Teachers read sections of the book in preparation for each of the four sessions, with the option to focus on specific chapters. Each session addresses a key theme through open-ended discussion prompts and an arts-based storytelling activity. In this template, presenters can reference a sample agenda for a book group session, including example prompts that were provided to participating teachers. We encourage you to adapt the structure and content to fit the needs of educators you support!

This resource is a professional development template for facilitating a hybrid professional learning community for educators. Through a combination of in-person gatherings, Zoom sessions, and asynchronous activities, teachers learn about climate justice and environmental justice topics that are relevant in their communities. They learn and collaborate with their peers in the CJL and are supported to design and implement a community action project with their students. This professional learning community was designed and facilitated in partnership with Stacy Meyer and Educational Service District 112.In this template, presenters can reference an outline of the learning experience. In addition, feel free to review "Climate Justice League - Community Action Project Examples" to get a sense of the types of projects that teachers implement, or to check out "Climate Justice Gallery Walk" as a sample learning activity. We encourage you to adapt the structure and content to fit the needs of educators you support, especially by incorporating locally relevant resources and examples!

In their continued support of climate science education, the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) created these resources to support K-12 teachers of all content areas integrate climate science and climate change into their instruction.  

ClimeTime is a state-led network for climate science learning that helps teachers and their students understand climate science issues affecting Washington communities.

OSPI manages the network and the grant funding flows through all nine Educational Service Districts (ESDs) in Washington ($3 million) and seven community-based organizations (CBOs) ($1 million) which are launching programs for science teacher training linking Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and climate science. In addition to teacher professional development, the project supports the 16 grantees to develop instructional materials, design related assessment tasks and evaluation strategies, and facilitate student events.

This learning resource will engage you and your colleagues in learning more about the importance of learning and teaching climate science as part of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). You will hear from multiple stakeholders about the importance and impact of learning about climate science, as well as engage with learning tools and reflection questions to deepen your learning and position you to take action in your setting. We envision this professional learning taking place in an ongoing community of practice. We encourage you to determine and proceed at your own pace that reflects the needs of your team.

Image by ejaugsburg from Pixabay

It has been proven that climate change affects us all, but not equally. Despite increasing investments of millions of dollars to address climate change, the year 2023 was the hottest year on average for the planet. If international governments are investing more in trying to address climate change, why does it seem like those efforts are not working?The fact is that we are not addressing the root causes of climate change: Inequalities perpetuated by a capitalist society. The following lesson plan includes a series of activities that can be done in a classroom setting or a community space in a more intergenerational manner. Depending on how the activities are facilitated (individually or as part of a larger event such as a workshop), the time could range between 30 minutes to 3 hours. The key is to promote a dialogue and let participants share their experiences and ideas, rather than just sharing information. The main goal is to exercise critical awareness and collective action.

Earth Systems and Changes from Educational Service District 123, provides professional learning resources for K-5 teachers around elementary Earth Science and Climate Science related standards content.

It also provides learning to assist in the development of classroom tasks: Claims, Evidence Reasoning, and Models and Explanations, that can be used formatively to elicit student ideas and to support changes in student thinking over time.

License: License: Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY)
Except where otherwise noted, this template by Educational Service District 123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. All logos and trademarks are property of their respective owners. Content within template is the copyright of the creator.

With students and educators under shelter-at-home orders, states and districts are faced with difficult decisions about how to support students’ science learning while they are home. Home environments support different aspects of student learning than school-based environments. Designing home-based learning experiences to intentionally take advantage of the unique assets of being at home can be supportive of students’ social, emotional, and mental health; provide a meaningful and complementary science learning experience; and allow students to explore real-world and personally relevant science in ways that are difficult to accomplish in school. Field-based examples of home and neighborhood investigations of ecological systems will be shared.

The Washington State Legislature has invested $16 million in climate science education since 2018. This portal contains links to professional learning resources and instructional materials developed by the ClimeTime network of educational partners who came together as a result of this funding. ClimeTime partners provide climate science professional learning to Washington science teachers, using innovative strategies and effective practices. Many projects also create instructional materials aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards, to support student climate science learning.

This Professional Development course sets up teachers and students to use the perimeter of their school to inquire about and monitor air quality as well as learn about emissions and activism in their community.Did you know idling cars during school pickup impacts air quality and the environment? Learn how to use an easy-to-implement action project to motivate and empower your students. Your students will build an understanding of how air pollution impacts their community and the climate and learn what community members are doing about it. They will then work together to map their findings, develop an action plan and share what they have learned.Learn how the Next Generation Science Standards Engineering Design Process and Social Studies standards can be an integral part of students working on real-world problems.Explore the social-emotional side of climate change and how direct action can foster resilience and environmental justice.Collaborate with teachers from across the region to have a collective impact on air quality and the environment.#climate science #islandwood (already searchable on text)

By the end of this course participants will…Understand how local phenomena interact with the Next Generation Science Standards, climate change, ecosystems, and people in a community.Experience how local phenomena and field investigations can build scientific understanding.

The Student Climate Assembly Toolkit describes how we design and implementation of the program. This is not a plug and play unit plan. Instead, it is a guide with options and resources for teachers to adapt this model to their own region and classroom.  The primary audience for this toolkit is high school civics teachers, but it may be of interest to other educators.This toolkit includes: a description of SCA preparation, components and how they were presented (section 1); background information about climate science, deliberative democracy, climate justice and social emotional learning (sections 1 & 3); learning standards & student assessment (section 2); sources for teacher and student research (section 3); and examples of SCA teaching tools (section 4)

In the 2018-2019 school year, Northwest Educational Service District 189 brought together a design team of six Pre Kindergarten - Kindergarten educators through a ClimeTime grant to find play-based, and engaging ways to teach climate science to early learners. This course shares out the findings of the team, including some work around designing for equity and 3-Dimensional Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) alignment. You will engage in activities to use with students including a puddle walk, soil permeability tests, and lesson examples. Phenomenon based lessons will be shared as well as a list of resources and recommended books compiled by our design team.

This is a Spanish language translation of the activities from the Resource by Jodi Crimmins called Early Learning Climate Science. https://www.oercommons.org/courses/early-learning-climate-science-pre-k-k-canvas-commons.

In this virtual professional development opportunity designed for teachers, EarthGen explores two global crises taking place concurrently - the climate crisis and COVID-19. What are the connections between the two? Why are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities disproportionately affected by both? Educators receive foundational information around climate justice, analyze the variables associated with vulnerability, exposure, and risk, and explore educational resources to bring this content into their classrooms.Contact EarthGen at info@earthgenwa.org for more information.

In this lesson, students will learn about how we can take renewable sources and use them for energy. Students will start by building an electric vehicle and then discussing the benefits and drawbacks of electric vehicles.

In this task from ClimeTime educators, students will demonstrate understanding of natural resources and their uses with respect to their impact on the Earth. Students will do short explanations, drawing an image, and providing evidence to support an argument.
Resource includes a student task document, teacher guide, and task facilitation slides.

This task, by ClimeTime educators, is for 4th grade students. After class brainstorm of the causes and effects of flooding on a playground or in a local context, students will generate solutions to the problems related to the flooding. Students will select two solutions to describe how the solutions could be implemented and what factors affect the success of the solutions. Students will describe which of the two solutions they think is best and the reasons for their decision.
The resource includes a student task document, teacher guide, and task facilitation slides.

This task, from ClimeTime educators, is for late-elementary (3-5) students, especially while studying about the needs of plants. Students use a simulation to test different variables and explore how different plants have different needs. Then, students connect what they saw in the simulation to plants in their area.
The resource includes a student task document, teacher guide, and task facilitation slides.

Collecting weather data across time supports data collection and analysis practices. Students can use their own data to look for patterns across time. Engaging in this assessment activity, developed by ClimeTime educators, will help students: explain the components that constitute weather and explain that these components change in patterns; describe how various components of weather can be different at different times of the year; explain how changes in the various elements of weather create patterns and influence behavior.
Resource includes a student task document, teacher guide, and task facilitation slides.