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BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS STUDENTS HELP DEVELOP CLIMATE CHANGE CURRICULUM

By October 19, 2019 No Comments

Boston Public Schools students and teachers collaborate to create climate change units for all ages.

The latest climate change projections from Climate Ready Boston start to show significant differences to Boston’s coastline starting in 2030, and continuing through the end of the century and beyond. Many of the biggest challenges associated with these changes to water and heat will be left behind to young people, but local student leaders are not waiting for their turn to take on the challenge.

For over a year, leaders from the Boston Student Advisory Council (BSAC) and Youth on Board (YOB) collaborated with science teachers and experts to develop comprehensive student-friendly units about climate change. Climate justice has been a focal issue for BSAC for several years, and this project has been ongoing through several generations of students.

The group worked with Timothy Gay, an AP Environmental Science teacher at Boston Latin School, and Pam Pelletier, with the BPS Science Department, to develop units that can be taught to elementary, middle, and high school students in Boston. Student voices aided in the creation of the units, and helped to emphasize and address social justice impacts climate change has on people and communities.

The curriculum aligns with the newly developed state science standards that mandates that climate change be part of Massachusetts’ public education framework. Please download and share this resource co-created with students; you can find it all at: www.climatecurriculum.com.

Integrating sustainability and climate change concepts throughout youth programming and curriculum is also an action outlined in Boston’s own 2014 Climate Action Plan. Greenovate Boston supports BPS Green Schools through various outreach initiatives, including hosting a workshop for local youth educators about the science of climate change outlined in the latest Climate Ready Boston report (image below) — learn about other education programs helping to Greenovate Boston.