We continue to promote and extend Tiff Boyd’s Classrooms for Climate Action (C4CA) project. That
project partners retired educators with practicing teachers to develop local climate/environmental projects
that can be integrated across the K-12 curriculum. We are working with Tiff to develop a video that explains
and promotes the project and will help recruit participants. She is also interested in developing
projects in more rural, agricultural areas of Colorado, which might be duplicated elsewhere. We are also investigating connections between C4CA and the Rethinking Schools project and its efforts on behalf of
climate justice.
At a recent team meeting, Scott Lewis, a member of Third Act Florida and organizer of the Florida Climate
Educators Network, updated us on his activities. He had invited us to participate in a Zoom presentation by
Martha Monroe, who shared the North American Association for Environmental Education guidelines for
excellence in climate change education that focus on action and justice. Likewise, Alice Freund, an environmental scientist with experience teaching grade 5-12 science, provided us with a summary of New Jersey’s new standards for integrating climate change into 7 curricular areas in K-12 instruction. It may be a model for other states who wish to take a non-legislative approach, but with accountability through a department of education. For details, see https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Sxus5NdYwrCFiUaDnyjuUwL-3d0iOkZJ/view .
Other initiatives under discussion or exploration include integrating climate education in community college courses, connecting with state retired-teachers associations to promote climate education, investigating the “Bending the Curve” curriculum developed at San Diego State University, and compiling a list of organizations that support or provide resources for educators in the area of climate change. If you are interested in any of these efforts or have suggestion for these or other projects related to climate, please contact our project team by emailing David Reinking.