What was that part about this being about science and definitely not a cult?
You Can Teach About Climate Change in Every Subject and Grade Level. Here’s How
As a topic, climate change is often confined to science class, but it should be considered an interdisciplinary issue that spans subjects and grade levels, educators and experts say.
That line of thinking hasn’t caught on with all teachers, though: When a nationally representative EdWeek Research Center survey asked why they haven’t addressed climate change or issues related to it with students, 26 percent of teachers said they can’t think of any way it is related to the subject they teach. Nine percent said they think their students are too young to learn about it.
New Jersey made headlines last year for becoming the first state to require that climate change be taught in all grade levels and subjects. But for the most part, it’s up to individual teachers to decide whether they want to broach the subject in class—a tall order, considering the complexity of the science, the strong emotions it raises, and the lack of training in how to teach it.
This might be a great idea, because kids can learn about things such as the Little Ice Age, Medieval Warm Period, Dark Ages, Roman Warm Period, etc, and can ask questions like “how did that happen when there were no fossil fueled vehicles?” They can learn about it in math, and ask questions like “why is the government trying to take even more of my money while the people pushing it refuse to modify their own lives to accord with their beliefs?” In Home Economics (do they still do that?) they can learn that Government is trying to restrict the foods they can eat and the consumer goods they can buy. In Sociology they can learn that Government is looking to restrict where they can travel to take their selfies and videos. In tech classes they’ll find out that the Climate Cult wants to restrict their ability to stream videos, movies, and TV shows.
Enter SubjectToClimate, a nonprofit with the goal of encouraging more teachers to teach about climate change. The organization, which launched in August 2021, has compiled hundreds of resources on climate change for every grade and nearly every school subject. It also pays teachers to create lesson plans on how climate change can be taught in every classroom. So far, there are more than 100, in subjects ranging from art and physical education to math and social studies.
In a conversation with Education Week, co-founder and chief operating officer Margaret Wang shared some examples of lessons and spoke about why it’s so important for climate change to be an interdisciplinary issue. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. (snip)
I’ll give you an example: This is a geometry lesson plan that we worked with a math teacher to create. At its root, it’s about what you would teach in a geometry class, but it’s answering the question, “How much would sea level rise if Antarctica melted?” which is really related to sustainability.
I think there’s a lot of talk that yes, it can be taught as early as kindergarten, but it needs to be taught a little bit more carefully. So we’ve worked with teachers in the K-2 [grades] to create lesson plans.
Essentially, indoctrination from a cult group starting at an early age.
