When Anacortes Middle School teacher Tasha Kirby had her class make applesauce last fall, she wasn’t teaching home economics. She was using locally grown apples to help her students make the connection between climate and the food they eat. Food is central to life,...
Partner stories
These stories are a collection of educator professional learning experiences and opportunities provided by ESD, CBO and Tribal School partners.
ESD 112
The ESD 112 plan for ClimeTime includes a variety of offerings in teacher professional development, development of instructional materials, and student events. Their goal is to engage teachers in exploring ways climate change is impacting their local community so they can provide students with authentic, climate-related problem-solving experiences.
Hot and Hazy Summers Connect Climate Change to Local Experience
Educators learned why we had such an extreme heat wave this past summer, as they heard from Robin Fox, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Spokane. Chelsea Freeman teaches high school in Tonasket, an agricultural community hit especially hard by the...
Climate Justice League Inspires Action
Attendees of the latest cohort of the Climate Justice League left their November 6 kickoff meeting inspired. “The idea that one person can make a difference has been an inspiring addition to this learning experience, and I am motivated in figuring out how I can be a...
Regional Science Coordinators are growing and supporting OpenSciEd use amongst middle school science teachers
Between 2018 and 2021, Washington State Regional Science Coordinators and a tea of dedicated middle school science teachers engaged in field testing OpenSciEd instructional units to help inform the development of a complete Grades 6-8 open educational resource (OER)....
Washington State High School Teachers and OpenSciEd: on the cutting edge of NGSS instruction and materials
Following our state's three year participation in helping develop the nationally recognized Middle School OpenSciEd materials, Washington State high school science teachers are stepping up to aid development of OpenSciEd's open educational resource instructional...
Using Shellfish to Teach Climate Change
Shellfish are an important traditional food source with cultural significance for coastal Native people and the foundation of an iconic industry for Washington state. The shellfish industry here generates hundreds of millions of dollars each year and employs thousands...
Connecting Lessons of COVID and Climate Change
A new virtual training, COVID and Climate Change helps teachers explore the relationships among climate change, COVID, and social injustice. This professional learning workshop, a collaboration between EarthGen and ESD 112, was first offered on January 23 and attended...
ClimeTime cited in leading science journal
The Washington state program ClimeTime, which is facilitated by the state’s nine Education Service Districts (ESDs) and community partners, was recently cited as a popular and effective model for educator education in climate science. The Journal of Science Policy and...
New Tools Engage Students in Virtual Climate Science Learning
Adults usually try to reduce kids’ screen time, but when COVID-19 closed schools to in-person learning last spring, schools had no choice but to move classes online. With little experience in remote instruction, teachers have been challenged to get kids actively...