Teaching Climate Change in the Classroom

In a new article from NPR, author Anya Kamenetz describes the response of teachers when asked about teaching climate change in the classroom. In a poll conducted by NPR and Ipsos, 8 in 10 teachers supported teaching their students about climate change. Despite this support, fewer than half of these teachers reported that they actually talk about climate change with their students, with the most common reason being that it isn't related to the subjects being taught. In order to help more teachers incorporate the topic into their curriculum without increasing their workload or forcing them to try and solve a problem, Kamenetz offers a variety of ideas and activities that teachers can use to incorporate climate education into their classroom. These include:

1. Do a lab

2. Show a movie

3. Assign a novel

4. Do citizen science

5. Assign a research project, multimedia presentation, or speech

6. Talk about your personal experience

7. Do a service project

8. Start or work in a school garden

Kamenetz dives into deeper detail with each, providing a real-life example of the activity being done as well as additional resources to learn about and also utilize. For the full list of activities as well as additional resources for climate education Kamenetz and NPR readers compiled, visit https://www.npr.org/2019/04/25/716359470/eight-ways-to-teach-climate-change-in-almost-any-classroom.