Sometime this fall, in a classroom in New York City, second graders will use pipe cleaners and Post-it notes to build a model of a tree that could cool a city street. They\u2019ll shine a lamp on their mini trees to see what shade patterns they cast. Meanwhile, in Seattle, kindergartners might take a \u201cwondering walk\u201d outside and come up with questions about the worms that show up on the sidewalk after it rains.<\/p>
This summer, teachers around the country are planning these lessons and more, in professional development programs designed to answer a pressing need: preparing teachers to teach about the climate crisis and empower students to act.<\/p>
\u201cI believe that the climate movement is the most interesting movement in education,\u201d said Oren Pizmony-Levy, associate professor of International and Comparative Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. (Disclosure: The Hechinger Report, which produced this story, is an independent unit of Teachers College.) Schools have to address student climate anxiety, provide them knowledge and skills, including the ability to recognize misinformation, and empower them to act, while schools also \u201cclean up their act\u201d by decarbonizing their physical infrastructure.<\/p>
Teachers don\u2019t necessarily feel prepared to lead this work yet, said Pizmony-Levy.<\/p>
\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing research with New York City Public Schools for the past 6-7 years. About a third of teachers say they teach about climate change in a meaningful way. Those who don\u2019t, give the following reasons: 1) It has nothing to do with my subject; 2) I don\u2019t know enough about it; 3) I don\u2019t feel comfortable talking about it; and 4) I don\u2019t have the right materials,\u201d he said.<\/p>
National polls by\u00a0Education Week<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0North American Association for Environmental Education<\/a> bear these views out. Three-quarters of teachers, and 80 percent of principals and district leaders in NAAEE\u2019s poll agreed, \u201cClimate change will have an enormous impact on students\u2019 futures, and it is irresponsible not to address the problem and solutions in school.\u201d Yet only 21 percent of teachers felt \u201cvery informed\u201d on the topic and only 44 percent said they had the right resources to teach it most of the time or always.<\/p> Read the full article about climate education by Anya Kamenetz at The Hechinger Report.