How important do you think it is for young people to learn about climate change?
Have you learned about climate change in school? If so, when did you start learning about it? In elementary school, middle school or high school?
What have you been taught about it? Have you learned about the fundamentals of climate science? The role that humans play? The consequences of a changing planet? The politics around it? Solutions for it? Have you explored climate change in subjects outside of science, for example in English, social studies or math?
How much time have your classes spent on climate change? Do you think it is enough? Or do you want to know more? Why?
In “Many States Omit Climate Education. These Teachers Are Trying to Slip It In,” Winston Choi-Schagrin writes, “Around the United States, middle school science standards have minimal references to climate change and teachers on average spend just a few hours a year teaching it.” The article begins: In mid-October, just two weeks after Hurricane Ian struck her state, Bertha Vazquez asked her class of seventh graders to go online and search for information about climate change. Specifically, she tasked them to find sites that cast doubt on its human causes and who paid for them. It was a sophisticated exercise for the 12-year-olds, Ms. Vazquez said, teaching them to discern climate facts from a mass of online disinformation. But she also thought it an important capstone to the end of two weeks she dedicates to teaching her Miami students about climate change, possible solutions and the barriers to progress.
“I’m really passionate about this issue,” she said. “I have to find a way to sneak it in.” That’s because in Florida, where Ms. Vazquez has taught for more than 30 years, and where her students are already seeing the dramatic impacts of a warming planet, the words “climate change” do not appear in the state’s middle or elementary school education standards.
Climate change is set to transform where students can live and what jobs they’ll do as adults. And yet, despite being one of the most important issues for young people, it appears only minimally in many state middle school science standards nationwide. Florida does not include the topic and Texas dedicates three bullet points to climate change in its 27 pages of standards. More than 40 states have adopted standards that include just one explicit reference to climate change. “Middle school is where these kids are starting to get their moral compass and to back that compass up with logic,” said Michael Padilla, a professor emeritus at Clemson University and a former president of the National Science Teachers Association. “So middle school is a classic opportunity to have more focus on climate change.” For those who do receive formal instruction on climate change, it will most likely happen in middle school science classrooms. But many middle school standards don’t explicitly mention climate change, so it falls largely on teachers and individual school districts to find ways to integrate it into lessons, often working against the dual hurdles of limited time and inadequate support. Ms. Vazquez makes the state’s requirement that she teach energy transfer an opportunity to talk about how wind turbines work. The ecology requirement becomes a chance to discuss the consequences of deforestation. But her commitment to the subject is not representative of how climate change is taught around the country. Around half of middle school science teachers either don’t cover the subject or spend less than two hours a year on it, according to a survey by the National Center for Science Education. That’s hardly enough time to teach the essentials, said Glenn Branch, the center’s deputy director. They need to learn, at the very least, the fundamentals of climate science, including the role humans play, the consequences of a changing climate, as well as solutions.
Students, read or listen to the entire article, then tell us:
What is your reaction to this news? Are you surprised to learn how many middle school science classrooms either don’t cover climate change at all or cover it only minimally? Is there a line or quotation from the article that stands out to you? If so, what is it and what does it make you think and feel?
How important do you think it is for young people to learn about climate change in school? Why?
The article states that climate change “appears only minimally in many state middle school science standards nationwide. Florida does not include the topic and Texas dedicates three bullet points to climate change in its 27 pages of standards. More than 40 states have adopted standards that include just one explicit reference to climate change.” On the other hand, “Beginning this year, New Jersey is incorporating some aspect of climate change’s effects, as well as solutions, into its standards for every grade band and in every subject area.”
Do you think climate change should be required in schools across the country? If so, when should students start learning about it? In what subjects? How much class time should be dedicated to it? If not, why not? According to the article: “Last year, the Texas State Board of Education voted on new science standards. A board member who is also a lawyer for the oil giant Shell succeeded in cutting the requirement that eighth graders learn how to ‘describe efforts to mitigate climate change.’” What is your reaction to this? Does it surprise you to learn who makes decisions about what young people learn in school? Who should make these decisions? The article shares how several teachers teach climate change in their classrooms: Ms. Vazquez talks about misinformation, Ana Driggs encourages her students to “find people or corporations or inventions that are making a difference,” Jerry Walther regularly takes his students outside to explore nature. What do you want to know about climate change? How do you wish your teachers would approach the topic?
What have you been taught about it? Have you learned about the fundamentals of climate science? The role that humans play? The consequences of a changing planet? The politics around it? Solutions for it? Have you explored climate change in subjects outside of science, for example in English, social studies or math?
How much time have your classes spent on climate change? Do you think it is enough? Or do you want to know more? Why?
In “Many States Omit Climate Education. These Teachers Are Trying to Slip It In,” Winston Choi-Schagrin writes, “Around the United States, middle school science standards have minimal references to climate change and teachers on average spend just a few hours a year teaching it.” The article begins: In mid-October, just two weeks after Hurricane Ian struck her state, Bertha Vazquez asked her class of seventh graders to go online and search for information about climate change. Specifically, she tasked them to find sites that cast doubt on its human causes and who paid for them. It was a sophisticated exercise for the 12-year-olds, Ms. Vazquez said, teaching them to discern climate facts from a mass of online disinformation. But she also thought it an important capstone to the end of two weeks she dedicates to teaching her Miami students about climate change, possible solutions and the barriers to progress.
“I’m really passionate about this issue,” she said. “I have to find a way to sneak it in.” That’s because in Florida, where Ms. Vazquez has taught for more than 30 years, and where her students are already seeing the dramatic impacts of a warming planet, the words “climate change” do not appear in the state’s middle or elementary school education standards.
Climate change is set to transform where students can live and what jobs they’ll do as adults. And yet, despite being one of the most important issues for young people, it appears only minimally in many state middle school science standards nationwide. Florida does not include the topic and Texas dedicates three bullet points to climate change in its 27 pages of standards. More than 40 states have adopted standards that include just one explicit reference to climate change. “Middle school is where these kids are starting to get their moral compass and to back that compass up with logic,” said Michael Padilla, a professor emeritus at Clemson University and a former president of the National Science Teachers Association. “So middle school is a classic opportunity to have more focus on climate change.” For those who do receive formal instruction on climate change, it will most likely happen in middle school science classrooms. But many middle school standards don’t explicitly mention climate change, so it falls largely on teachers and individual school districts to find ways to integrate it into lessons, often working against the dual hurdles of limited time and inadequate support. Ms. Vazquez makes the state’s requirement that she teach energy transfer an opportunity to talk about how wind turbines work. The ecology requirement becomes a chance to discuss the consequences of deforestation. But her commitment to the subject is not representative of how climate change is taught around the country. Around half of middle school science teachers either don’t cover the subject or spend less than two hours a year on it, according to a survey by the National Center for Science Education. That’s hardly enough time to teach the essentials, said Glenn Branch, the center’s deputy director. They need to learn, at the very least, the fundamentals of climate science, including the role humans play, the consequences of a changing climate, as well as solutions.
Students, read or listen to the entire article, then tell us:
What is your reaction to this news? Are you surprised to learn how many middle school science classrooms either don’t cover climate change at all or cover it only minimally? Is there a line or quotation from the article that stands out to you? If so, what is it and what does it make you think and feel?
How important do you think it is for young people to learn about climate change in school? Why?
The article states that climate change “appears only minimally in many state middle school science standards nationwide. Florida does not include the topic and Texas dedicates three bullet points to climate change in its 27 pages of standards. More than 40 states have adopted standards that include just one explicit reference to climate change.” On the other hand, “Beginning this year, New Jersey is incorporating some aspect of climate change’s effects, as well as solutions, into its standards for every grade band and in every subject area.”
Do you think climate change should be required in schools across the country? If so, when should students start learning about it? In what subjects? How much class time should be dedicated to it? If not, why not? According to the article: “Last year, the Texas State Board of Education voted on new science standards. A board member who is also a lawyer for the oil giant Shell succeeded in cutting the requirement that eighth graders learn how to ‘describe efforts to mitigate climate change.’” What is your reaction to this? Does it surprise you to learn who makes decisions about what young people learn in school? Who should make these decisions? The article shares how several teachers teach climate change in their classrooms: Ms. Vazquez talks about misinformation, Ana Driggs encourages her students to “find people or corporations or inventions that are making a difference,” Jerry Walther regularly takes his students outside to explore nature. What do you want to know about climate change? How do you wish your teachers would approach the topic?
