Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network Newsflash

May 17, 2023

CLEAN Needs Assessment

Teaching about climate topics? If you are teaching or would like to teach about climate topics, consider completing CLEAN’s anonymous, 15-min online survey! CLEAN is gathering information about teachers’ experiences, interests, and needs around teaching students about climate change. You can enter a drawing for one of six $50 Amazon gift cards. To enter the drawing complete the survey by June 10th and provide your email address. Your email address will not be connected with your survey responses.  

Click here to access the Survey!

What do you think everyone needs to know about climate change? The U.S. Global Change Research Program would like to hear from you!

“Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science” has informed educators, policymakers, and scientists around the world for over a decade, and this great resource is getting an update!

The U.S. Global Change Research Program would like to hear your feedback on what a new guide should include, focus on, and look like. Submit your comments at contribute.globalchange.gov and keep an eye out for listening sessions and workshops at www.globalchange.gov/notices.

The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is a federal program mandated by Congress to coordinate federal research and investments in understanding the forces shaping the global environment, both human and natural, and their impacts on society. USGCRP facilitates collaboration and cooperation across its 14 federal member agencies to advance understanding of the changing Earth system and maximize efficiencies in federal global change research.

Community Needs

UCAR Center for Science Education Survey on the NCAR Mesa Lab 360° Virtual Visit

The NCAR Mesa Lab 360° Virtual Visit allows you to visit the NCAR Mesa Laboratory in Boulder, CO, without leaving your couch! You can immerse yourself in the science as you move through the exhibits and engage with content unique to the online experience.

The Ask:

1. Explore the NCAR Mesa Lab 360° virtual visit. There is newer content for those who have been before – you can now take a ‘walk’ along the Walter Orr Roberts interpretive weather trail to learn about weather features and climate change impacts along Colorado’s Front Range.
2. Take the short 10-question survey and tell UCAR Center for Science Education about your experience – what you liked, what they need to improve, and what they should add.
3. Share this email with your friends, family, and colleagues.
4. The survey link will remain active until July 1st.

Middle school teachers needed for paid research study with NEEF

The National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF), the University of California, Berkeley, and the Climate Mental Health Network are seeking participants for a research study of middle school teachers to learn more about student emotions related to climate change, and what resources would help educators respond to and support those reactions in their classrooms.

The Ask:

1. Online Survey: Complete one 20-minute online survey.
2. Focus Group: Participate in one 90-minute online focus group meeting.

You will receive $100 for participating in the focus group and $20 for completing the survey.

If you meet the eligibility criteria above and are interested in participating in the study,

please contact them via email by May 16, 2023.

Resources

Climate Hope and Science by the Science of Happiness Podcast

This new podcast series by The Science of Happiness finds the links between crisis, hope, happiness, and action. 

This five-episode special series explores the intersection of environmental well-being and our own well-being -- where taking care of ourselves and the planet are one and the same.

New EPA Report on Climate Change and Children's Health

“EPA’s new report offers a clear, compelling overview of how climate change impacts our children’s health. Its findings underscore the necessity of considering children’s well-being in every climate policy — and the moral urgency of taking effective action to stop climate pollution on behalf of younger and future generations,” said Moms Clean Air Force Senior Policy Analyst Elizabeth Bechard. “We know that children are especially vulnerable to nearly all of the health impacts of climate change, from extreme heat and worsened air quality to coastal flooding and increased prevalence of insect-borne diseases. The new report is painful to read. But necessary..."

“Embracing the Glocal: in search of the middle path for our shared future”

by Mark McCaffrey

2 minute read

"As the rich get ever richer, the poor become ever more vulnerable to risks beyond their ability to cope, and political and cultural polarization increases, finding a middle path to untangle the complex challenges we face is crucial. This middle ground is not so much about politics, but rather the societal scale at which we live our lives – the “glocal” place where local and global dynamics converge."

"Zeroing in on Inequality" by Mark McCaffrey

5 minute read

"Inequality — of wealth, power, agency, and climate impacts — is the defining challenge of our time. To face it successfully, we need to zoom in on it: to measure and address it in the neighborhoods and communities where people live, work, and interact."

Opportunities

SDG Challenge 2023: Taking Steps Towards a Better Future

Join the SDG Challenge 2023 on UN SDG: Learn and take action towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals!

Share your quiz results or showcase your SDG action to inspire others to learn about sustainability. Plus, participants can win a scholarship to attend the UN Summer Academy!

Learn more and sign up!

Wade Institute for Science Education 2023 Summer Professional Development Institutes

Watershed Science and Engineering in the Berkshires

A Summer Professional Development Institute for Grades 6-12 Educators

Registration Information

Dates: July 10th – 14th, 2023 (8:30 AM – 3:30 PM ET)

Location: Based out of the Berkshire Science Commons at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, MA

Cost: $450 per educator; discounted prices for teams of teachers from the same school

Credit: PDPs are provided; 3 graduate credits available for an additional fee

Register online!

Connecting Science and Literacy in the Elementary Classroom

A 3-day professional learning opportunity for grades 3-5 educators

Registration Information

Dates: July 17th - 19th, 2023 (8:30 AM – 3:30 PM ET)

Collaborating Partner and Location: Hitchcock Center for the Environment, Amherst, MA

Cost: $350 per participant; team discounts available for teachers from the same school

Credit: PDPs are provided; 2 graduate credits available for an additional fee

Register online!

Whales’ Tales, Turtle Hurdles, and Migration Phenomena

A Summer Professional Development Institute for Grades 3-8 Educators

An Approved Course for MA DESE’s Accelerating Science: Open Access Professional Learning

Registration Information

Dates: July 17th – 21st, 2023 (8:30 AM – 3:30 PM ET)

Location: Based out of Manomet, Inc, Plymouth, MA

Cost: Free with a $450 stipend for eligible MA Educators through DESE's OAPL funding; $450 per educator; discounted prices for teams of teachers from the same school or free for eligible MA educators

Credit: PDPs are provided; 3 graduate credits available for an additional fee

Register online!

Events from the CLEAN Network

CLEAN Calendar: Opportunities & Professional Development

Becoming a Climate Change Educator in Every Discipline

(June 5th-7th, 8:00 am-6:00 pm MT)

Begin or continue your journey of becoming a climate change educator by pairing concrete facts about the mechanisms of climate change with the human elements: personal experiences, storytelling, and collective action. Education is a climate change solution—you are teaching students to make choices for a just and sustainable world. Participants will articulate their own climate story, review and better understand climate change science, explore climate justice, and experience effective climate change teaching and learning strategies. By using resources including the Climate Literacy Principles, Climate Generation, Rethinking Schools, UNESCO, CLEAN, and Colorado specific data, you will expand your skills, perspectives, and understandings of how to integrate climate change into your teaching. As a bonus, the instructor is an Arctic Outreach Educator, so the course will also include Arctic climate change references and will introduce students to the Polar Literacy Principles.

Learn more!

On Call with CLEAN

Attend CLEAN's Weekly Teleconference

For Network Members each Tuesday, 1:00pm ET/12:00pm CT/11:00am MT/10:00am PT

This Month's CLEAN Calls are featuring:

• May 23rd: Informal Conversation (How we can we support ambassadors of the CLEAN Network)
• May 30th: Fighting In A World On Fire: How to gain traction? with Jimmy Whips
• June 6th: Informal Conversation (Stories from Our Mediterranean Climate Brothers and Sisters)
• June 13th: Designing Ambitious Pathways to Climate Careers with Mark Basnage

Yuraq: Energy and Life in Balance: Yup'ik Knowledge and Energy Education

On the April 11^th CLEAN Telecon, Colleen Fisk and Valerie Tony, a Yup'ik/Sup'ik knowledge bearer, presented together on the work they’ve been doing to improve the inclusion of indigenous knowledge in the energy efficiency curriculum of Colleen’s organization, AK EnergySmart. Colleen has provided a video of one of the songs Valerie does with her dance group. You can find it on the home page of their curriculum website here.

Or you can watch directly from YouTube!

Featured CLEAN Post

Facebook: @CLEANET

Are you supporting student mental health while teaching about climate change?

Our #ClimateMentalHealth pages provide strategies for facilitating the expression & validation of climate emotions while also encouraging positive emotions & reducing stress.

Posted: May 15, 2023