Project is 'On Break' for the Summer ... Check Back in with us for the Fall
Mission Statement: The High School Climate Action Education Project aims to expand environmental justice literacy and empower San Diego high school students in environmental justice communities to act for climate justice. Youth4Climate staff will work with high school educators to build a community of practice, focused on creating collective, innovative, and strategic approaches to increase uptake and integration of climate justice and action lesson plans.
The key goals for the project are:
- Create a community of practice to empower educators to integrate climate justice lessons and action opportunities in their classrooms.
- Identify key gaps for educators in delivering climate lessons and work together to close those gaps.
- Work with educators to develop climate justice and action lesson plans.
Please fill out the interest form (see link below) if you would like to join one of the upcoming climate huddles to: work with other teachers on workshopping climate justice and action lesson plans, and form a community with other educators with the same goals as you!
Spring 2023 Recap
The Youth4Climate Program Coordinator and the Youth4Climate College Intern worked with high school teachers to build a community of practice, focused on creating collective, innovative, and strategic approaches to increasing uptake and integration of climate justice and action lessons.
Our community of practice engaged 5 core teachers, all of whom have a shared interest in climate justice and climate action education. Throughout the 5 teacher huddles, we created and edited 4 distinct lesson plans: 1. What is Climate Justice & Why is it Important?; 2. What is Climate action?; 3. Indigenous Knowledge and Understandings: Climate Justice; 4. Joining the Movement: Climate Action. Through this process, we also identified and addressed issues affecting implementation of climate justice/action focused lesson plans.
There were 2 teachers that were able to implement the lesson plans into their classrooms, and all have plans for the upcoming fall 2023 semester.
We engaged 1 additional teacher, who then attended and actively participated in 3 of the huddles. At least 3 of the Eco Clubs at the 5 schools we engaged are planning on joining the Eco Club Coalition for the 2023-2024 school year.
Helping us make this project successful were several adult professionals, who provided feedback on the lesson plans, the project structure, and support and guidance for the future of the project. These included Dr. Nan Renner, Dr. Crystal Starr Howe, and Max Maxfield.
This project was overall extremely successful as a pilot program, engaging 6 teachers in workshopping climate action and climate justice lesson plans, and have created excitement, connections and a supportive community of teacher climate advocates. Based on the Teacher Feedback Survey, there is a lot of excitement to continue participating in the Teacher Huddles. We are creating the framework for the next round of the project now, and will be sending out applications soon! Please reach out to Alli Dangio (alli@youth4climate350.org ) with any questions or to express early interest!