This is a small learning community of Ontario teachers who are co-designing and exchanging curriculum and assessments on Climate Action, that serve to empower students — connecting their learning to meaningful action, and supporting their development as citizens and critical thinkers (including prospective careers that might connect to climate issues).
Climate change is a complex, multidimensional problem, as much as it is urgent. Many educators want to contribute to action on issues related to climate change, and in recent years this has come to include the need to help our students feel less worried and more empowered. The magnitude of the issue, and its inevitability, have caused distress amongst adults and students. The term “climate anxiety” has emerged to describe a range of malaise amongst K-12 students such as worry, anger, dispassion, or hopelessness.
Below you can explore the initial ideas of the Summer 2020 cohort of CALE teachers. You can help improving these ideas, in preparation for enacting those designs in the coming school year (2020-21). In the ensuing year or two, we will expand this community to form a Climate Action Learning Exchange (CALE) in which educators from around the world are supported in designing and exchanging curriculum that promotes collaboration and inquiry to address the scientific and social complexity of climate change, and critically disrupt passivity and alienation.
