OUR RESOURCES
Climate Change for Environmental Educators
​

RESOURCES

Teaching Climate Change . . .
                   with existing Project WET,  Project Wild, Project LearningTree activities

 
​
Are you already a Project WET-, Project Wild- or Project Learning Tree-certified Educator? If so, you have some climate change education tools at your fingertips.

​Here is the climate change correlation that shows all relevant, existing activities in the three curriculum guides (with links to a few bonus activities that anyone can access).
​

               with new Project WET, Project WILD and Project LearningTree Climate Curricula 

Project WET's
Climate Water and Resilience 

Completion of a Climate, Water and Resilience workshop is required to obtain the curriculum guide. Online training and the curriculum are available together for $20 here. Sample lessons from "Climate Water and Resilience" are available here. "Using Project WET to Teach Climate Resilience" pdf free here.

Project WILD's
​Climate & Wildlife

The Climate and Wildlife curriculum guide is available for $19.68 here and the corresponding online training is available for $20 here. There is also a special offer for free online Climate and Wildlife training for K-12 teachers and college professors in fall of 2022, here. 

PLT's Carbon & Climate;
SE Forest and Climate Change​

The Southeastern Forest and Climate Change e-unit, including 14 activities for high school students, is theoretically available for free, without a workshop, here (though may be out of stock). The Carbon and Climate e-unit for middle grades is $25 without training or $40 with training, here.

PRACTICES

STEM Practice Briefs on How to Teach about Climate Change

          Dig Deeply Into the Science 
Students deserve to have a scientific understanding of climate change based on observing and examining lines of evidence. Although standards may fragment climate change concepts, an interdisciplinary approach and systems thinking is needed.

Learn More

     Explore Disproportionate Impacts
Climate change affects some communities more than others. Use local phenomena to study disproportionate impacts and to examine why  vulnerable populations are  impacted. Structured Academic Controversy is a way to teach students how to think, not what to think.

Learn More

​    Focus on Solutions and Resilience
Teaching students about climate change in isolation can contribute to eco-anxieties and disengagement. But teaching climate change in combination with environmental stewardship  opportunities can improve student well-being and environmental outcomes.

Learn More

All Climate Learning Resources from STEM Teaching Tools

CURRICULUM STANDARDS
Climate Change Connections in Educational Standards

Where are the Climate Change connections in GA Standards of Excellence in Science?

Learn More

Where are the Climate Change connections in GA Standards in Social Studies?

Learn More

Where are the Climate Change connections in the Next Generation Science Standards?

Coming Soon

BACKGROUND INFO  /  THE BIG PICTURE
Brush Up on Climate Science Basics 

Photo illustration by Andrea D'Aquino

The Science of Climate Change Explained:   Facts, Evidence and Proof
                   by Julia Rosen, PhD​ (New York Times)
Find scientifically accurate answers to the big questions such as "How do we know climate change is happening?",  "Isn't climate change part of the planet's natural heating and cooling cycles?",  "What is the evidence that humans are contributing to climate change?", and "How can we know for certain what the climate was like before historic records?"​

Learn More

---

Kids and Climate Change

Illustration by Yuliya Parshina-Kottas

Bad Future / Better Future:
​A Climate Change Guide for Kids and What We Can Do About It
​    by Julia Rosen, PhD​ (New York Times)

Learn More

 
COMING SOON . . .
​EEA's Curated Collection of Climate Change Lesson Activities
​ -   Researching Climate Change Causes and Indicators from Evidence
 -   Investigating Climate Change Effects through Field Investigations
 -   Implementing Climate Change Solutions 

Materials and Resources for Teaching Climate Change
    Climate Change Curricula and Lesson Collections
​    -  Essential Principles of Climate Literacy with related lessons for each
    -  CLEAN: Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network lesson collection
    -  Purdue University Dynamics of Climate Educator Toolkit and companion materials
    -  NC State's Wildlife, Weather, Climate and Change
    -  National Geographic Climate Education

Instructional Strategies for Teaching Climate Change 
  -  Surveying Primary Sources and Evaluating Evidence
  -  Making and Using Models, Simulations and Algorithms
     -   The Climate Impact of Neighborhoods, Mapped:  Interactive 

  -  Collecting Data
      -  Citizen / Participatory Science Projects related to Climate Change
           -  Project BudBurst (phenology)
           -  Journey North
           -  Symbolic Monarch Migration

  -  Analyzing and Interpreting Data
      -  Exploratorium's Graphing the Keeling Curve from Mauna Loa's CO2 Data
      -  Data Nuggets Climate Change modules
      -  Project WET climate data analysis activities

Causes of Climate Change
​       -  Release of Greenhouse Gases from Burning of Fossil Fuels
           -  Oil and Gas as Fuels for Electricity and Transportation
           -   Oil and Gas as 
                    - Trash or Recycling? Plastic Keeps Us Guessing

Indicators and Effects of Climate Change 
       -  Global Surface Temperatures Trending Upwards
               -  Temperature Change (NOAA)
               -  Extreme Heat (New York Times interactive article)
               -  Global Warmimg 101 (NRDC article)
         -  Warming Oceans and Sea Level Rise
                 -  Experiment: Thermal Expansion of Water  (UCAR Center for Science Ed)
                 -  Modelling Thermal Expansion (NASA Jet Propulsion Lab)
       -  Glaciers Shrinking
       -  Extreme Weather
​           -  Role of Climate Change in "Once in a Generation" Winter Storms
           -  Role of Climate Change in Hurricanes and Tropical Storms
       -   Loss of Wildlife Habitat
            -   Animals Are Running Out of Places to Live
       -   Exploring Climate Change's Disproportionate Impacts
              -   The Heat Island Effect and the Legacy of Bank Redlining Practices

  -  Student-Directed Projects and Action
      -  Purdue's What Can I Do About Climate Change? poster series
      -  David Suzuki Foundation's Climate Change Solutions
      -  Project Drawdown's Solutions 
      -  Climate Justice 
      

RESEARCH 
​How to Teach Climate Change            Teaching Climate Science

University of Florida                                                              NSTA

Executive Summary

Position Statement

Tools