2022 ECCLPs Event Learning Leads & Sponsors
Alisa Singer Sponsor
Alisa believes climate change to be the most critical challenge facing our world and sought to find a way to use her art to further efforts to bring awareness to the issue. She was attracted by the inherently aesthetic design elements of scientific charts and graphs, and intrigued by the idea of using art to give them dramatic effect.
In late 2014 she conceived the Environmental Graphiti project and created the series The Art of Climate Change, with abstract images illustrating the science behind the critical changes impacting our planet. Environmental Graphiti® is a collection of over 75 digital paintings, each derived from a chart, graph, map, word or number representing a key fact about climate science.
Environmental Graphiti has been extensively exhibited in the US and other parts of the world. Dozens of universities own collections of the art and pieces were also acquired by a major science museum in Toronto. The art has also been featured on the covers of three major reports by the IPCC (the climate science organization sponsored by the UN and the World Meteorological Association) – Global Warming of 1.5°C (2018) and Climate Change 2021 – The Physical Science Basis.
To see the full collection of art and learn more about Environmental Graphiti:
Amigos de Bolsa Chica
Amigos de Bolsa Chica is a non-profit volunteer organization formed in 1976 by a group of Huntington Beach residents to protect the Bolsa Chica wetlands from development. Located in Huntington Beach in northwest Orange County, the Bolsa Chica wetlands had once been part of many acres of coastal wetland that had been filled for urban development in the 20th Century. Concerned about the statewide loss of coastal wetlands, the Amigos de Bolsa Chica pledged to protect, preserve and acquire the Bolsa Chica and surrounding open space and to provide education about the importance of wetlands.
The Amigos de Bolsa Chica achieved major reductions to the development plans and spearheaded an effort that resulted in the state's acquisition in 1997 of 880 acres of wetlands. The public now owns approximately 1400 acres of wetland and mesa. A large portion of a major lowland restoration project was completed in 2006. Biodiversity increased noticeably almost immediately.
The Amigos de Bolsa Chica provides education about this unique ecosystem through private and public wetland tours for schools, scouts, other organizations and members of public; and a Community Science-based, water quality analysis program called FLOW—Follow and Learn about the Wetlands and Ocean. With 90% of California’s wetlands gone, the goal of community-based education programs centered on the Bolsa Chica is to create greater awareness of the state’s threatened biodiversity and invite the surrounding community to participate in protecting the fragile ocean-wetland ecosystem.
Aquarium of the Pacific
The Aquarium of the Pacific’s mission is to instill a sense of wonder, respect, and stewardship for the Pacific Ocean, its inhabitants, and ecosystems. Our vision is to create an aquarium dedicated to conserving and building Natural Capital (Nature and Nature’s services) by building Social Capital (the interactions between and among peoples). It is a community gathering place where diverse cultures and the arts are celebrated and a place where important topics facing our planet and our ocean are explored by scientists, policymakers, and stakeholders in the search for sustainable solutions. It has taken a bold new approach in the future of aquariums with the opening of its Pacific Visions wing.
The Aquarium strives to redefine the modern aquarium. With that in mind, the Aquarium has recent launched a number of initiatives aimed at lowering barriers that too often limit participation in field of marine science for historically underrepresented communities. Since 2021, the Aquarium has named 21 recipients of the African American Scholar Program. The program provides financial support and community engagement to talented African American students pursuing fields of study related to the work of the Aquarium. To better connect them to each other and the Aquarium, Scholars engage with Aquarium staff, projects, initiatives, and events.
Change Narrative
Change Narrative LLC, exists to build capacity in the climate justice movement through the power of our stories. Through a coaching practice, founder, Jothsna Harris, works with front-line activists, legislators, musicians, artists, organizations, and community groups to craft climate narratives as a way to build climate confidence and utilize as an advocacy tool for solutions. Through her work, she helps expand the understanding of who an environmentalist is and whose stories are told to repair harm and shift historical and damaging narratives in mainstream climate communications. She centers on everyday voices, and specifically, identities typically excluded from critical discussions and decision-making on climate change, including Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), LGBTQIA+, youth, people with lower incomes, people with disabilities, and others. Jothsna is formerly the Director of Special Projects and Partnerships at Climate Generation. She currently serves on The Great Northern Festival Board of Directors. Change Narrative specializes in creative climate productions, current projects include; Project Drawdown's Neighborhood supporting a city-by-city storytelling video series featuring climate heroes whose stories often go unheard, Taproot Earth, based in Louisianna, to develop a narrative justice toolkit around climate reparations for frontline communities. Change Narrative recently won a first-time producer Golden Lanyard award for the 2022 MN Fringe Festival stage production "Changing the Narrative: Climate Stories for Justice" utilizing art, music, and poetry as an entry point into the climate conversations.
The Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN)
CLEAN is the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network. Our primary efforts are to steward a reviewed collection of free, high-quality teaching materials for teaching climate and energy and to support the CLEAN Network, a community of professionals committed to improving climate and energy literacy. The CLEAN collection contains 800+ free, online, peer-reviewed, NGSS aligned, and ready-to-use educational resources for teaching about climate and energy. These resources are reviewed by scientists and educators and the collection is syndicated to the NOAA Teaching Climate Portal, making it the official federal government collection of climate & energy teaching resources. CLEAN also provides pedagogical support for teaching climate and energy topics, including background pages on climate & energy topics, resources for building climate units, a bimonthly newsletter connecting resources to current events, professional development webinars, and a toolkit to help educators with many aspects of bringing climate into the (online) classroom. The CLEAN Network, established in 2008, is a professionally diverse community of over 800 members committed to improving climate and energy literacy locally, regionally, nationally, and globally, to enable responsible decisions and actions.
Climate Generation Sponsor
Climate Generation ignites and sustains the ability of educators, youth and communities to act on the systems perpetuating the climate crisis. Climate change is defining this generation: everyone alive today. Founded by polar explorer and educator Will Steger in 2006, our work is rooted in his powerful eyewitness to climate change and engaging classrooms in adventure learning. We increase educator access to quality professional learning opportunities and resources through a community of practice and deep partnerships with national climate change education leaders. We support a network of high school students across Minnesota taking action on climate justice. We send delegations of youth, educators, and multi-sector representatives to annually participate in the U.N. climate negotiations: the Conference of the Parties (COP). Communities collectively hold the power to innovate and demand climate change action to make long-term and systemic change – our team accomplishes our work through three overarching strategies: overcome disinformation, center anti-racism and systemic equity, and personalize and localize climate change action.
Learn more at climategen.org.
Crystal Cove Conservancy
Crystal Cove Conservancy is the nonprofit public benefit partner to Crystal Cove State Park, employing a social enterprise model to fund important preservation, education, and conservation initiatives. Our mission is to restore the park, educate our future environmental leaders, and protect Crystal Cove, and places like it, for generations to come.
Earth@Home Sponsor
The Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) has a long history of serving diverse audiences, from scientists to school children. As part of an ongoing effort to continue to grow its national reach and expand its educational outreach offerings, PRI has developed Earth@Home, a free online toolkit for learning about Earth and its 4.5-billion-year history.
Earth@Home is rich with free interactive content about Earth and its life, with a focus on geology, paleontology, climate, and the connections of Earth’s different systems.
The Magnolia Agriscience Community Center (MACC)
The MACC is an urban agricultural oasis build on the Magnolia high school campus. They strive to education students, families, and the community about sustainable agricultural practices, nourishment, and community building. Through this project, they hope to see a social and cultural shift in how our Anaheim UHSD community approaches food habits because of their new scientific literacy of cultivating and using their own food grown in their neighborhood. The center is led by the MACC coordinator, Sabina Giakoumis (pictured).
The Ocean Agency Art Exhibit
The Ocean Agency is an Ocean Conservation non-profit with a mission to accelerate ocean science and conservation. They are partnered with UNESCO on a 10-year program of activity to improve Ocean Literacy and support for ocean science and conservation using the power of creativity.
The Ocean Decade Exhibition is a showcase of art to inspire greater ocean awareness and action. The surreal artworks were all inspired by the UN's 7 Principles of Ocean Literacy and were created by artists from around the world.
SubjectToClimate Sponsor
SubjectToClimate (StC) is a nonprofit online connector for K-12 educators of all subjects to find credible, unbiased, and engaging materials on climate change at no cost. These materials consist of:
Resources from other organizations that we curate and add synopses, teaching tips, and scientist notes.
Inquiry-based lesson plans that are developed by other teachers to show educators how to integrate climate change to what they already teach.
News articles for students.
Professional learning opportunities
TreePeople
TreePeople has inspired, engaged, and supported more than 3 million people to take action for our environment by planting and caring for trees in forests, mountains, parks, and our neighborhoods. Our unique, engaging, and proven model empowers communities to plant a more resilient future and take personal responsibility for greening their neighborhoods. Through our on-the-ground research and educational programs, TreePeople shares knowledge with policymakers, students and educators, and communities around the world. Our youth programming supports and empowers students, teachers and communities with knowledge, skills, and understanding of the environment and partners alongside them to take action through hands-on meaningful projects.
After fires burn, TreePeople reforests. When schools are covered in concrete, TreePeople creates green schoolyards. When communities experience food insecurity, TreePeople donates fruit trees. When California is drought-stricken, TreePeople designs solutions to capture rainwater. As the world faces increasing threats from a more hostile climate, TreePeople helps create actionable solutions.
UCI Cal Teach Math & Science
The mission of UCI’s CalTeach program is to recruit and prepare diverse math and science majors to become equity-oriented secondary teachers who are change agents in high-need schools. Over the program history (2008-2020), approximately 1400 students have taken CalTeach classes, with a third (463) earning their teaching credentials, 191 through the full 4-year CalTeach program at UC Irvine, 200 at UCs and CSUs, and 72 through private institutions. The program has improved the outcomes of all students, but especially underserved students. The program has more than doubled the number of graduates earning their Bachelors and credential, increasing from an average of 16 credential earners per year in 2012-2018 to an average of 30 in 2019-2021. Program alumni persist in teaching at high rates, with 91% of all time full program completers currently teaching, and 73% of them teaching in high-need schools (2012-2020).
