Climate Champions
Climate Champions, based at UC San Diego (UCSD), aims to get more climate teaching, learning and action in our region, centered on climate justice. The ECCLPS report recommendations inspired this collaborative effort that connects university, K-12 and community. UCSD partners from CREATE (Center for Research on Educational Equity, Assessment and Teaching Excellence), California Subject Matter Projects, Birch Aquarium and Scripps Institution of Oceanography are working with the San Diego County Office of Education, with funding support from the UCSD Social Sciences Climate Action Lab.
Teacher communities of practice are agents of change, with the goal of greater spread throughout the region. Working closely with the San Diego Science Project, Climate Champions Teacher Leaders are field-testing curriculum and adapting distance learning lessons (developed during the pandemic) for in-person instruction. In August, a Climate Champions Design Summit will engage science teachers and researchers at Scripps and UCSD, focused on local, relevant and observable climate phenomena. Understanding Global Change provides an organizing framework. Computer science teachers are using "Climate Change, Data Science, and Computing” curriculum through partnerships with the Computer Science Teachers Association and Code.org. The San Diego Area Writing Project and Reading and Literature Project have hosted numerous teacher workshops focused on integrating climate change and environmental justice into elementary classrooms. Climate Champions Youth Leaders recently presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting in San Diego to share their work curating climate resources for Humanities and Social Science classes. Questions can be directed to Nan Renner.
K-12 and university leaders enjoyed community connections and learning together about climate science on Scripps Pier and at the Scripps Ocean and Atmosphere Research Simulator in February 2022.