![\"Four](\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/IMG_20190920_131307119-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>But why?<\/h4>\n
I have a few hunches: first, despite being addressed in curriculum content standards, including the Next Generation Science Standards and the C3 Social Studies standards, climate change somehow feels like a political issue.<\/p>\n
Newsflash: It’s not. It’s not a political issue.<\/strong> It’s science. And civics. It’s everything, really. And all too imminent. I mean sure, it has political implications, economic implications, social, ecological…it changes everything.<\/p>\n Yet wading into anything that feels like partisan waters can be anxiety-provoking for educators.<\/p>\n And speaking of anxiety, yeah, well, eco-anxiety<\/em> made Oxford’s shortlist for words of the year 2019<\/a>. Climate emergency<\/em> won the top spot, and the whole list was related to climate change. Many of us are feeling the burn, so to speak. And for many of us, our strategy is to tamp that feeling down and focus on something else.<\/p>\n Or so it seems. It is very easy to feel powerless in the face of such a complex, global challenge.<\/p>\n And yet. The future is at stake. And as educators, just as we value our students, we value their future. Our job is to help prepare them for that future, however uncertain it may be.\u00a0 And we can’t get there by ignoring or minimizing the threat posed by climate change.<\/p>\n I don’t have all the answers, but I have a few ideas. These, plus a little courage will move us in the right direction.<\/p>\n Climate change is a trans-disciplinary concept. There is not a content area that isn’t connected to this issue. From math to art, relevant academic connections can be made. Our students are asking us to help them understand what’s happening, why, and what we can do about it.<\/p>\n \u00a0It’s science:<\/strong><\/p>\n To start, help students understand the facts of climate change in a developmentally appropriate way. Provide matter-of-fact explanations about the science of climate change. Help students understand what greenhouse gases are and how they function. Explore what happens when we upset the carbon balance in our atmosphere, and how scientists use models to try to predict and understand the impacts and outcomes of these changes in global chemistry.<\/p>\n Help students discover how governments — from local and federal and beyond- work and<\/em> how we can get involved. Explore international policy and global efforts to combat climate change.<\/p>\n Who is in charge, makes laws, benefits, and suffers? What happens when we don’t follow through? How does change happen?<\/p>\n Help students understand power and privilege. Who has benefited from the dominant global system? And who has suffered as a result? Who is predicted to suffer the most severe impacts of climate change first? What is our responsibility?<\/p>\n Learn together about humans’ relationship with the earth and other living things. Discuss the concept of natural resources. Identify how we use earth’s resources and explore the mental models and perspectives on how those resources should be consumed (hint: contrasting a Western capitalist mind with an Indigenous mindset can be revealing).<\/p>\n Check out this Tar Sands – Keystone XL role play<\/a> from A People’s Curriculum for the Earth<\/a> from Rethinking Schools.<\/p>\n It’s ok if you don’t have all the answers! Be the lead learner and model for students how we can seek answers to our questions.<\/p>\n Help students become systems-thinkers,<\/a> who can flexibly understand the relationships and interconnectedness of systems, their parts, and issues. Teach them to look beyond the surface to the complexity of the interactions within and between ecological, economic, and social systems. (Hint: The Climate Change Playbook<\/a> has a ton of great games that help students understand these concepts and more.)<\/p>\n We need to be real, and we need to be mindful. Exposing kids, especially younger ones, to the horrors of starving polar bears or burned kangaroos may lead to what educator David Sobel termed ecophobia<\/a>, which means a fear of the natural world. This fear can lead to a sense of powerlessness and withdrawal from nature (and activism).<\/p>\n Help them find answers to their questions, but avoid alarmism.\u00a0 It’s paralyzing; it invokes our flight, fright, or freeze response. Instead, be truthful while emphasizing the efforts focused on mitigating the problem. There is hope; we are<\/em> the hope.<\/p>\n Developmentally speaking, our students are primed to seek opportunities to develop their competence and autonomy, to fight injustice, and to seek connection. Lead the way!<\/p>\nThe problem is so very big and complicated, and we are so very small.<\/h4>\n
So what’s a teacher to do?<\/h4>\n
Knowledge is power<\/h4>\n
Here are a few science resources to help you get started:<\/h5>\n
\n
![\"2](\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/IMG_20191008_130911747-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>It’s civics:<\/h4>\n
Check out these civics resources:<\/h5>\n
\n
![\"Large](\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/IMG_20190920_095155640-1024x618.jpg\")
<\/a>And sometimes it’s both together:<\/h4>\n
![\"Kids](\"https:\/\/greenmountainmamascom.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/06\/img_20180228_195300871.jpg?w=723\")
And it’s connected to everything.<\/h4>\n
Keep it developmentally appropriate<\/h4>\n
Cultivate agency and empowerment<\/h4>\n