Climate Change Curriculum

Our Courses

Additional grade level units will be added as our project progresses towards our final goal of a K-12 Climate Change Curriculum.

Overview

Climate change is a reality, and is affecting all of us now, and is projected to intensify during the coming decades. The changes will affect how we all live our lives, from where we live and the fuel we use, to how and where our food is grown. Most of us have bits and pieces of information surrounding climate change, some of it well founded in science, some not. Every student, from the brightest most engaged future scientist to our less academically involved students, needs well designed climate change education to understand, and adapt to the scientific, social, and economic realities of our changing climate.

Over the past year there has been an increase in climate change information available, but well-designed instruction within most schools has not kept pace.  In addition climate change is a new topic for many teachers, and a complex topic that encompasses many disciplines.

TownGreen2025 has multiple goals for this Climate Change Curriculum project:

  • Engage local teachers in designing grade specific climate change lesson plans that fit their existing grade and curriculum requirements.
  • Connect climate change education to real projects in the community in which students can make a difference through their learning and research work
  • Create a sequential scaffolded curricula for grades K-12 that is available on line to all who wish to use it.
  • Bring knowledge to our community and beyond of strategies that can bring a fossil free and carbon balanced economy to all in a relatively short time period.

In our first step towards these goals, teachers from Rockport and Gloucester completed two grade level units in the summer of 2017. They had the support of a consultant from Woods Hole Research Center (named the world's top climate change think tank), and a specialist in designing curriculum using UDL approaches. This curricula will be adjusted further as we learn more during implementation, and as new research and ideas come into play.

We plan to hold similar workshops next summer, and in subsequent summers  with teachers representing additional disciplines and grade levels. Our over all goal is to have the K-12 curricula in place, well connected to local projects, with multiple interdisciplinary projects, in place by 2024.

The Curricula

Elementary School Curriculum Middle School Curriculum High School Curriculum

Thank you

Thanks to the following group who created these units and supported this project with their enthusiasm, humor, and tenacity.  

Ocean Acidification: Seeking Local Solutions to a Global Challenge Unit: Kellie Barrett and Noelle Cormier
Our Warming Planet and Its Impact on Wildlife Unit: Giuseppe Delisi and Jodie Parisi
Carbon Cycles through Ecosystems unit: Bob Allia and Carolyn McWilliams
Climate Change: Causes, Impacts, and Solutions: Janell Andrews, Rachel Rex, Eric Sabo, Jessica Lichtenwald
Science Consultant: Kathleen Savage
Curriculum Design Consultant: Grace Meo
Website Design: Monty Lewis
Editing: Barbara Gale
Funding: Reforest The Tropics, Cell Signaling, The New England Grassroots Environment Fund, and TownGreen2025.