Community-Centered Climate Action for 3rd-5th Grade Teachers
Jan 8 – 29, 2025
Community-Centered Climate Action
Did you know idling cars during school pickup impacts air quality and the environment? Have you ever wondered about the role of trees in relation to air quality? Learn how to use an engineering design focused action project to motivate and empower your students.
- Learn how the Next Generation Science Standards Engineering Design Process and Social Studies standards can be an integral part of students working on real-world problems.
- Experience how the Next Generation Science Standards Engineering Design Process and Social Studies standards can be an integral part of students working on real-world problems.
- Explore the social-emotional side of climate change and how direct action can foster resilience and environmental justice.
This course is intended for teachers of 3rd-5th grade students with some flexibility in what they teach. The action project in this course is focused on idling cars and buses during school pickup and the role of trees as carbon capturers. It is best suited for teachers who can make this student-generated action project a part of their school day. Others are welcome but will likely be unable to implement the materials.
- For participation in the course, you can earn up to up 10 Clock Hours (8 STEM and 2 Equity). For teachers that are implementing the Air Quality Storyline, an additional 3 Clock Hours (1 STEM and 2 Equity) can be earned for attending Implementation Check-Ins and completing Implementation Reflection Surveys.
- Clock hours can be claimed after May 8th.
After completing this course, teachers will need to claim and pay for clock hours on PDEnroller.
During the course, there will be three online sessions after school on Wednesdays and one Saturday session (there will be an option to participate in-person at the Brightwater Education Center in Woodinville or an online session the following weekend). For those attending the in-person session, we are excited to be together in community and happy to be able to provide course-related books!
There will be a virtual alternative for in-person session on the following Saturday, but we can only provide the books to those who join us at the in-person session. There will be two additional optional online sessions available for teachers who are implementing the Air Quality Storyline.
All sessions will be on Zoom.
- Session 1: Wed, Jan 8, 4:00 – 5:30 PM
- (Opt in-person) Session 2a: Sat, Jan 11, 10:00 AM – 2:30 PM
- (Zoom alternative to Jan 11) Session 2b: Sat, Jan 18, 10:00 AM – 2:30 PM
- Session 3: Wed, Jan 22, 4:00 – 5:30 PM
- Session 4: Wed, Jan 29, 4:00 – 5:30 PM
Implementation check-ins and reflections are optional and only available to teachers that are implementing the Air Quality Storyline in their classroom this winter/spring. Implementation check-ins will take place on Zoom:
- Wed, Feb 26, 4-5:00 PM
- Wed, May 7, 4-5:00 PM
By the end of this course, implementing educators will:
- Create an Action Plan with their students using the Engineering Design Process to decode and develop understanding of student-gathered data.
- Collaborate with community stakeholders (and optionally other teachers from across the region) to implement an action plan to have a collective impact on air quality and the environment.
- Experience how action projects can support a larger equity and justice-focused framework and work with other participants to develop ideas that will work for their individual curriculum and community.
“My teaching of science was rather global and probably a bit overwhelming to my students; however, now I feel much more confident using local data and storylines which will scale down this overwhelming (and scary) topic for my fifth graders. Am very excited to really integrate this work in my classroom.”
– Teacher Professional Development participant
This video features students from Karrie Coombe and Chantal Fleck’s classes at Emerald Heights Elementary. It showcases the amazing “No Idling” campaign their students developed and executed after Karrie and Chantal participated in IslandWood’s Community-Connected Climate Action course. The course was aimed at providing teachers with age-appropriate, community-relevant strategies and lessons to incorporate climate change into science learning. You’ll be blown away by the impact the students made after learning about air pollution in their community!
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