Teaching Climate Change Essentials is a nine-week, online teacher professional development comprising both asynchronous and synchronous elements.
There are nine learning modules, one per week. In each module teachers learn new content, collaborate and engage in peer reviews, receive feedback from course facilitators. They also determine how best to implement new ideas within their existing curriculum.
The number of hours of facilitated coursework varies each week depending on whether teachers are taking the course for PD hours, CEUs or Graduate Credits. While this teacher professional development does have weekly assignments, teachers have the flexibility to learn at their own pace. And they can complete the coursework at times that fit their weekly schedule.
In addition to the nine learning modules, spaced throughout the teacher professional development are three live webinars led by subject experts. These webinars include small group work in breakout rooms discussing and synthesizing the content shared by the guest speaker.
Course Reading Materials
This primary course ebook is provided.
Wilford H. Welch, 2017. Ebook.
In Our Hands: A handbook for intergenerational actions to solve the climate crisis.
What will the word look like in 2050 if we take action to get global warming under control? What will it look like if we don’t? The book explores how these two scenarios. And looks at the individual and collective steps we must take to protect our future. It provides ideas and resources to inspire the move from concern to action. It proposes that by collaborating across generations, we can build a more resilient world.
Teaching Climate Change Syllabus
The Teacher PD syllabus comprises of the nine learning modules below.
Module 2 | Introduction to Climate Science Literacy
Module 3 | Climate Science 101
Module 6 | Climate Change Urgency
This module will allow you to appreciate the urgency of climate change action. You will examine the urgency of mitigation and adaptation related to climate change, prepare a timeline of the impacts of climate change in your region, and assess the impacts of climate change / global warming as it relates to global sustainability.
Module 7 | Climate Change’s Human Impacts and Inequities
Module 8 | Climate Justice Going Deeper
This module is an overview of the impacts of climate change through a social justice lens. You will go deeper into the implications of climate change on marginalized populations. You will discover connections between climate change and solutions and apply that knowledge to your curriculum, compile resources and ideas to use in your classroom, and finalize plans integrating climate change education into your existing curriculum.
Module 9 | Final Project
At the end of this teacher professional development, for your final project you will apply what you have learned throughout the course. You will augment a series of lessons or a unit that includes climate change / global warming, submit a presentation of your work, reflect on your work, and provide feedback to your peers.