OLD – Building Environmental & Climate Literacy

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OLD – Building Environmental & Climate Literacy

Engaging & Empowering Students about the Environment and Climate Change

Lessons & Learning Activities

  • List of Websites on Climate Change - includes teacher and student resources
  • NOAA Climate and Environmental Resilience Resource Hub - NOAA related assets & sponsored programs, projects, lesson plans, and citizen science.
  • Flipside Science from the California Academy of Sciences. Features media-rich units to engage students in design thinking activities around environmental issues. This engaging and upbeat collection of videos, hosted by Academy youth, and associated lessons, explores how local communities are addressing environmental problems with solutions ranging from vertical farming to greywater recycling. Units on energy, food, water, and ocean health.
  • In the activity, students use resources from NASA's Climate Change website to research key indicators of Earth's climate health, such as CO2 concentrations, global surface temperature, arctic sea ice, land ice, sea level, and forest cover. Students record information about each vital sign, then create presentations to share their findings. A Teacher Guide, Pre- and Post-Activity Assessment, and climate indicator PowerPoint presentation are available.

Toolkits for Teachers

Information & Readings for Teachers & Students

  • IPCC Reports on Climate Change - Annual Reports, Special Reports detailing causes, status, impacts, and possible mitigations to climate change, from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (Awarded Nobel Peace Prize, 2007) Suitable for Middle/High School
  • Based on Science: Climate Change - Brief, clear responses with citations to key questions on climate change. Written in claim/evidence/reasoning format. Suitable for upper elementary to 12th Grade.
  • The Science Behind Climate Change - Brief, clear responses to questions on climate change, written in accessible, clear format. Suitable for upper elementary to 12th Grade.

Further Readings for Teachers

Citizen Science

  • Point Bonita YMCA - Hands on Service & Science Learning: Pacific Mole Crab Monitoring Field Trip -  Students get their hands wet and sandy looking for sand crabs with specially designed equipment. Using their field observation and data collection skills, students use an established protocaol to ID and survey the distribution and abundance of sand crabs on our local beach.
  • The Watershed Project - From Me to the Sea - Students engage in citizen science data collection and analysis around marine debris to experience firsthand the scope of the problem, but also the efforts underway to solve it.
  • Point Blue Conservation Science - Bird Science in Action - Educational field trips to their Palomarin Field Station to observe science-in-action and connect with field biologists as they safely band and release songbirds. Every year, approximately 1,500 students and community members learn how decades of data on bird populations uncovers evidence of climate change in our backyard, and beyond.
  • SciStarter – Where to find the right citizen science project for you!
  • Zooniverse – For finding online citizen science projects you can do from home or the classroom, including projects in the arts, history, literature and much more!
  • The Backyard Biodiversity Project
  • The Eclipse Megamovie Project
  • National Parks Service 
  • The Crowd & The Cloud three-part citizen science documentary series
  • FieldScope - BSCS Science Learning’s online platform for hosting citizen science project data.
  • The Citizen Science Association, with journal, blog, conference, community listserv, and more!
  • The Citizen Science Toolkit from the Cal Academy of Science contains resources to help communicate the value of citizen science to students and cultivate their sense of empowerment and impact when performing science investigations.
  • CalCoast and Bio Blitz are citizen science projects run by Cal Academy of Science. Cal Coast explores the ecosystem of the California coast. BioBlitzes take place in local parks, documenting the range of plant and animal species living there.
  • NOAA US Climate Resilience Toolkit - Guide to exploring hazards, assessing risk, investigating options, planning and taking action. Links to over 200 tools for accessing data, devising action plans.

Connecting with Scientists

  • Planting Science - Free service. Scientists provide online mentorship to student teams as they design and think through their own inquiry projects
  • NOAA resource - Resource within NOAA Climate Toolkit to find local resources from NOAA, USDA, USGS, and other federal agencies

Student Action Projects

  • Flipside Science from the California Academy of Sciences features media-rich units to engage students in design thinking activities around environmental issues. This engaging and upbeat collection of videos, hosted by Academy youth, and associated lessons, explores how local communities are addressing environmental problems with solutions ranging from vertical farming to greywater recycling. Units on energy, food, water, and ocean health.
  • Kids for the Bay - Environmental Action Projects - Each project includes engaging hands-on activities focusing on a particular environmental problem and the solutions to that problem.  Teachers and students become empowered to take action and help our local environment! Several types of projects available. Some scholarships available.
  • The Watershed Project - Greening Urban Watersheds Service Learning Projects-  include service trips to various restoration sites, including tree planting opportunities.
  • Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots provides a tool kit for how to do service learning projects with your students. You can also get $200 mini-grants to support your effort.
  • NOAA Climate Action Learning Process - NOAA developed learning/action toolbox for teaching climate and energy. The Climate Action Learning Process (CALP) provides a path teachers can follow to educate students about climate and energy science, develop the skills to take action, and then reevaluate teaching methods.
  • NOAA US Climate Resilience Toolkit - Guide to exploring hazards, assessing risk, investigating options, planning and taking action. Links to over 200 tools for accessing data, devising action plans
  • Tools for Teachers & Families: Alameda County -  Program to engage students in learning about energy conservation and steps they can take at home, and encourage in the school and community to mitigate climate change/reduce CO2
  • Tools for Teachers & Families: Contra Costa County - Program to engage students in learning about energy conservation and steps they can take at home, and encourage in the school and community to mitigate climate change/reduce CO2
  • NOAA Toolbox for Teaching Climate & Energy  
  • FEMA Community Resilience Indicators - Data, recommendations

Field Trips

*Note: These field trip sites are currently closed due to COVID.

6th Grade: Weather & Water

  • Bay Model Visitor Center - *SPECIAL NOTE* While the Bay Model is currently closed to in-person visits due to COVID, this video provides a tour and info about the California watershed. Explore the Bay Model - Learn about the geography, topography, ecology, as well as the human and natural history of the San Francisco Bay and Delta. Free self guided field trip.
  • Chabot Space and Science Center - Climate, Atmospheres & You Workshop - Why is having an atmosphere important? How is Earth’s climate changing? In this workshop, students will discover how CO2 and other greenhouse gases impact Earth’s atmosphere. Free self-guided field trips all year round. Free workshops during field trips offered Sept.-Jan.
  • East Bay Municipal Utility District -
    • Wastewater treatment plant tour  - *Free* Find out what happens after dirty water from your toilet, shower and laundry goes down the drain.
    • Outdoor classroom on watershed stewardship - Hands-on learning provides children experiences that help them to better understand what it takes to protect the environment andhow our drinking water supply relates to it. EBMUD rangers work with students to enhance habitats, stabilize soils, and restore natural conditions for creeks and disturbed areas in the East Bay. Four different locations. Apply in August for this free field trip.
  • Folsom Dam Power House State Park - Visitors touring the powerhouse can see the massive General Electric transformers, each capable of conducting from 800 to 11,000 volts of electricity, in addition to the forebays and canal system that brought the water from the dam. free
  • Hiller Aviation Museum - Storm Chasers - Explore how weather affects flight in a challenging foul-weather flight simulation. Discover thunderstorms and other weather hazards and how they affect aircraft, and then enter the Flight Sim Zone to embark on a realistic mission into inclement conditions. Discounted and free days available.
  • Lawrence Hall of Science - Ingenuity Lab: Urban Water Challenge - Students are introduced to water engineering as they design and build a city landscape using simple permeable and impermeable materials and test their city’s ability to retain stormwater, prevent flooding, and capture pollutants while considering ecological impacts.

Grant Sources

  • CRS Grant List - Updated monthly.  Grants with specific deadlines are at the front of the list, but grants with rolling or continuous funding are found towards the back. Keep scrolling!

Community Resources for Science
1611 San Pablo Avenue, Suite 10 B
Berkeley, CA 94702

 

Phone: (510) 527-5212
Fax: (510) 527-5216
Email: community@crscience.org
EIN: 94-3262587

 

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The mission of CRS is to empower teachers and STEM professionals serving schools in historically marginalized communities to activate TK-8 students’ curiosity about the world, foster critical thinking, and inspire children to imagine future career pathways. We envision a community of educators, scientists, families and partners working together to build school cultures that equip all children to explore the world around them and build the skills needed to become innovators, problem solvers, environmental stewards, life-long learners and leaders. CRS leads a dynamic network, fostering relationships and collaborations that leverage expertise and resources to transform science teaching and learning toward greater equity, opportunity, and success for all students.

 

Our goal is simple: help teachers give students more opportunities to “do science” – to ask questions, test ideas, get their hands on real science activities. We need to inspire the next generation of thinkers, makers, problem solvers, and leaders!