Catalytic Classrooms: A Playbook

307,256 students. 74 school districts. 10 counties. 3 states.

1 region. 1 future.

This playbook is split into two main sections. The first part of this playbook ("ABC") contextualizes the call for climate action in classrooms. The second part ("123") catalogues that call for action. Used properly, this playbook is meant to both inspire and inform change.

• [A]ll: Climate change affects our entire region.
• [B]ackground: Existing classroom climate curriculum represents an opportunity for growth and impact.
• [C]atalytic [C]lassrooms: Teachers occupy a uniquely influential position for change.

• [1] Professional Development: Teachers can grow their own content expertise through trainings.
• [2] Pedagogy: Teachers can maximize the potential of their contact with research-based approaches.
• [3] Collaboration: Classrooms can benefit from collaboration with community partners and institutions.

Right now, climate change is happening in our counties: to our health and safety, on our roads, under our feet. It is happening in our communities, and our infrastructure will need to adapt to mitigate it. We will devise new strategic plans, derive energy from more sustainable sources, and repair and build new structures to handle the demands of our current and future populations. This clarion call to adapt cannot be ignored, and it will only intensify over time and for future generations.

Our region's existing infrastructure is failing. Changes in precipitation represent only one emerging challenge affecting the region.

As weather and other environmental changes continue to accumulate in intensity and volume, our region will need new structures and new systems. And, as new challenges and changes surface, our region will need a new way of thinking.

The creative approaches and solutions that our 10-county region will need to create, design, and implement will need to account for specific local contexts. Our county's schools range in enrollment, from districts with a few hundred students to districts with over 20,000 students. In creating climate curriculum, it is equally important to make room for the differences that define each school and district and to keep the thread that every student in every school in every district is ultimately connected through climate change.

Regional School District Snapshot

Click through the charts to see the enrollment diversity of school districts in each state (Ohio is green, Kentucky is yellow, and Indiana is red.). Districts were sorted into three (3) categories by size: under 5,000 students enrolled (lightest), between 5,000 and 9,999 students enrolled (darker), and above 10,000 (darkest).

Explore the map below to visualize other differences and similarities between the region's districts, counties, and states. Note that the concentration of districts is highest in the central county (Hamilton County) and dissipates in all directions.

State Standards Snapshot

Adding to this jurisdictional complexity within the region is the competing state standards. Because learning objectives and standards are determined at the state level, state boundaries are important considerations in any curriculum creation. While some states have adopted the same set of science standards, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio have retained distinct standards.

• Indiana: science standards based on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS*) framework
• Kentucky: Next Generation Science Standards
• Ohio: science standards not related to NGSS

Current Climate Curriculum Conditions

In 2020, the National Center for Science Education published the report "Making the Grade? How State Public School Science Standards Address Climate Change." Evaluators reviewed state standards against 4 evidence-backed claims, supported by the scientific community, about climate change.

It's real. Recent climate change is a genuine phenomenon. It's us. Human activity is responsible for global change in climate. It's bad. Climate change is affecting and will continue to affect nature and society. There's hope. It is possible to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

All three states in the region have standards that present opportunities for improvement. The diversity in alignment offers an opportunity for all three states to collaborate to make progress together. This diversity is especially important to consider when creating a regional curriculum or any associated resources.

As our region crafts climate curriculum, it must equally account for differences and honor the connection between its students, schools, districts, counties, and states. While students across the region do not share classrooms, they do share climate conditions: One region means one future.

Effecting change in the region's classrooms is multi-dimensional, both in terms of scales and stakeholders. Concerned community members can partner with neighborhood schools on climate change curriculum initiatives, such as planting school gardens and/or lobby for state standard curriculum changes. Education-minded elected officials can mandate state-wide audits to assess existing climate change curriculum and/or form a regional task force to collaborate on curriculum changes. Importantly, institutions acknowledge and operate around jurisdictional boundaries, but climate change and its effects do not. Effective, long-term climate change mitigation will require action with sustained efforts, at all levels, by all stakeholders.

Everyone is impacted by climate change, and everyone is part of the solution.

Because classrooms will be the final destination for climate curriculum, classrooms should also be the origin for change.

Momentum for Classroom-Specific Change

While the effects of climate change becoming more extreme since the late 1900s, there has been a relatively recent seismic shift in public attitudes regarding climate change. Data shows that there is collective agreement around the need for schools to address the topic of climate change. This consensus spans stakeholders and political ideologies.

In fact, a 2019 NPR/Ipsos poll revealed that nearly 90% of teachers (86%) support teaching about the topic of climate change. Nearly three-fourths of those teachers indicated support for not only teaching about the topic but also teaching about its effects on our world and communities.

Grassroots momentum for climate curriculum is already here in our region.

Stakeholders at all levels agree: It's time to do something now. Our students, our classrooms, and our region can't wait.

Teachers are experts on their classroom, their students, their lessons, and their communities. They need support that builds on their experiences, skills, and knowledge.

1. Demand Funding for Training and Professional Development

More than 75% of teachers indicate that they have never received any formal training about how to teach climate change topics. But two-thirds of teachers indicated interested in continuing education explicitly and exclusively focused on climate change.

Every state requires teachers to complete continuing education hours to maintain a valid license.

• Indiana: Six (6) semester hours completed at an accredited Indiana/Out-of-State institution
• Kentucky: 15 graduate semester hours or one-half of CEO requirements (first five-year renewal); completion of Master’s degree or completion of CEO requirements
• Ohio: 6 semester hours or 180 continuing education contact hours

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS:

• Apply to state-specific Department of Education grants for district initiatives
• Advocate for funding changes at school board meetings
• Request school- or district-specific funds earmarked for teacher professional development

2. Participate in Workshops/Trainings

Data underscores the importance of climate-specific training for teachers. Traditional science education does not result in improved outcomes. Education efforts must emphasize science communication best-practices and equip teachers to address resistance at its roots. This approach is more necessary in politically conservative localities. In the 10-county region, the western-most counties (Franklin, Dearborn, Boone, and Grant) present the greatest need for this approach.

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS:

• Complete national educator training certificate programs (ex.: Climate Justice Education Certificate for Pre-K-12 Teaching)
• Complete regional educator training certificate programs (ex. Ohio’s Environmental Education Certification Program)
• Register for free online climate-related courses (ex. OER Project)
• Apply for grants to fund professional development opportunities (ex. Hamilton County Conservation District's Odegard Diebel Education Grants)

1. Apply Technical Knowledge and Implement Best Practices

Effective climate change curriculum is rooted in educational research-based best-practices. As educations, teachers are experts at conducting this type of instruction. Implementing climate change curriculum requires teachers to transfer their skills into the delivery of climate-specific content that also has research-based characteristics.

RESEARCH-BASED BEST PRACTICES

2. Plan Intergenerational Learning

Intergenerational Learning (IGL) occurs when children influence their caregivers' thoughts, attitudes, and (ultimately) actions. For example, research shows that children successfully implement IGL by persuading their caregivers to purchase sugary cereal or adapt to ever-evolving technology. When intentionally embedded in environmental education programming, successful IGL has empirically influenced caregivers' "waste education behaviors, flood education knowledge, energy conservation behaviors, and general environmental conservation knowledge." As it turns out, even US Congressmen are not immune to it.

"That's the year that our son, the eldest of our five kids, had just turned 18. So he came to me and said, dad, I'll vote for you, but you're going to clean up your act on the environment... And so, you know, I knew that my son loved me, and he was going to vote for me no matter what. But I think he was really saying, dad, I love you, and you can be better than you were before. That's what made it possible for me to listen to them. And of course, I'm also aware that societies that can't listen to their young people are the ones who get stuck. And then the world passes them by. That was step one for me in this metamorphosis on climate." -Bob Inglis, former US Congressman

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS:

Learn more about how intergenerational learning has already proven successful on the topics "waste education behaviors, flood education knowledge, energy conservation behaviors, and general environmental conservation knowledge"  (Lawson, 2019) .

The greater the task/assignment/activity aligns to these criteria, the more effectively it implements IGL research-based best practice.

After planning a climate-related activity, use the checklist "Does the task..." to evaluate its IGL content.

Trust between teachers is higher than trust between teachers and any other stakeholder. In fact, a 2019 national Gallup study found that over four-fifths of teachers (81%) indicated that other teachers are their most trusted source for vetting materials and discerning what works in their classrooms. This compares to the 28% of teachers who reported that they trusted their principals to do that.

Established programs, like NCSE's Curriculum Field Study Testers, offer opportunities for teachers to connect. Research also supports the effectiveness of teacher learning communities at the school scale. Even small groups of teachers at the same school facilitate teacher-to-teacher learning, brainstorming, modeling, and reflecting - all resulting in more effective teachers with more refined content.

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS:

• Partner with NCSE's Curriculum Field Study Testers to learn best practices
• Apply to become a Curriculum Field Study Tester
• Design, facilitate and participate in a similar community with other educators at the district, regional, and/or state level(s)
• Form small-scale teacher learning communities with other teachers at the same school
• Model, brainstorm, and collaborate if/when climate content is particularly controversial

2. Form Partnerships with Other Institutions

While teachers secure professional development training to strengthen their own climate content expertise, they can partner with local scientists. Known as "learning pods" these partnerships will leverage the strengths of each stakeholder: Scientists will have content knowledge expertise, and teachers will have experience with state standards and their students' skills and interests. Because these partnerships will be formed within the region, both stakeholders possess a strong understanding and knowledge of the local context - another key characteristic of effective climate curriculum.

Jobs in climate-related fields are on the rise. Solar jobs in Ohio grew 21% in 2019, for example, representing a significant future employment market. As the coal industry continues to decline, the region will need to pivot to renewable energy for employment opportunities. To fill the jobs in this emerging market, the region will need an educated and skilled workforce. That process begins with awareness of professional opportunities. Partnerships with local employers and/or higher education institutions would expose students to future career possibilities. Importantly, the exposure from these partnerships would emphasize the "hopeful" component of effective climate change content - an opportunity for growth in the entire region.

Regional, state, and even national museums present additional opportunities for partnerships. Museums offer educational resources and capital, and local/regional museums offer the additional benefit of a built-in connection to the local community.

In Boston, the Museum of Science partners with educators to support learning in classrooms across the city. Specifically, EiE ^®  Curricula and Professional Development offerings provide vetted material to support teaching skills for growing professions (computer science and engineering, for example). The Ambassador Program allows teachers to a network to grow their own skills and knowledge in community with other educators.

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS:

• Research regional institutions that could serve as potential partners (non-profits, professors, student groups at local higher education institutions...)
• Research national institutions that could serve remotely as potential partners
• Organize a "Climate Career Day" for your school/district
• Contact local professionals to share information about their climate-related careers
• Contact local institutions to learn more about potential partnerships

Next time you plan a lesson,

... ask yourself if you could fit in a component with intergenerational learning. Can it incorporate the local context? Can it include a collaborative element with caregivers?

Next time you plan your week,

... check to see when the next school board meeting is. Can you pencil it into your calendar? Can you ask your colleagues to go with you?

Next time you schedule your continuing education credits,

... search climate-related options, in the region or online. Can you start with one training and see where it takes you? Can you convince your team to come, too?

Think big. Start small.

One lesson. One curriculum. One region. One future.