In January and February of 2021, 80 Washington citizens from all walks of life and political persuasions gathered virtually to learn about, deliberate on and make recommendations to the Washington state legislature about how to mitigate climate change in our state. Specifically, the question the Washington Climate Assembly addressed was:
How can Washington State equitably design and implement climate mitigation strategies while strengthening communities disproportionately impacted by climate change across the State?
These citizen assemblies use a facilitated, democratic process to seek answers to a question or solve a problem facing a community, and it is done in a way that represents the interests of citizens from all walks of life. Citizen assemblies originated in Europe but are now spreading around the world. The Washington Climate Assembly was the first of its kind to take place in the US.
In the fall of 2021, two environmental educators, Dave Ketter and Lisa Eschenbach, came together to turn the expert video presentations into mini-lessons for teachers & students. Each lesson in the series contains 1-3 videos and materials to engage in conversation and learning.
The purpose of this series of Lessons from the Climate Assembly is to:
- increase teacher background knowledge in climate change, climate justice and climate change education.
- explore sources of information about climate change and teaching resources.
- consider how teachers might share climate science content and resources with their students.
- engage in dialogue with other teachers about teaching climate change.
Four sets of videos from expert speakers who presented at the Washington Climate Assembly are available on OER Commons.
Session topics include:
- Session 1: Introduction to Climate Change in Washington State
- Session 2: Climate Change and Climate Justice
- Session 3: Social Emotional Learning and Climate Change
- Session 4: Climate Change, Tribal Sovereignty and Rural Communities
Watch this space for upcoming supports to offer a Student Climate Assembly!
