NEWESD 101
Northeast Washington ESD 101 focused on creating a way to reach all 288 schools in their region with standards that fit their scope and sequence while expanding teachers understanding of climate science. This resulted in larger professional development for regions and individualized professional development for some schools.
Teacher Professional Development
In addition to several professional development workshops within the region, NEWESD contracted with Immersed Games to buy licenses and professional development in order to use their current ecology “sandboxes” to teach climate science standards. These licenses are being used in teacher Professional development. Immersed Games is being funded by the Department of Education to build more “sandboxes” based on earth science standards. NEWESD is providing science consulting to Immersed Games who is working within the ESD 101 region to provide licenses to schools and educators.
Instructional Materials
PBS is working on creating three videos for use in classrooms. They will be based on our single source aquifer and each will be geared to a different grade level. K-5; 6-8; and High School. The high school video will be based on career and connected learning and feature careers that are available around climate science and what communities in our region are doing to address the issue.
Student Engagement
NEWESD contracted with Filament Games to build a Climate Science Game called Climate Champions. This work included a face to face meeting and building a game from a standard up. We chose game play based on the all or nothing principle where the players have to learn to play together to win or everyone loses. This game is now in the production phase and we have built professional development for both a 3 and 6 hour training which accommodates both after school and full day availability for teachers.
Partners & Collaborators
Pacific Education institute
Outdoor Learning Center
Spokane County Libraries
Whitworth Gonzaga University
WA MESA
Computer Science Teachers Association
Filament Games
Workshops
ASCD Workshop
High school teachers participated in a workshop facilitated by ASCD and supported by Spark 101 videos. This workshop focused on industry based careers. Teachers built and designed lessons for their math and science classes based on industry practice.
School Visits
School visits have continued throughout our 59 districts as we have endeavored to reach every one of our 288 schools in our region. We continue to travel to our northern, western, and local districts doing climate science workshops, after school events, and also individual class visits with many or our rural districts.
Success Stories from NEWESD 101
Climate Change Through Children’s Literature: A Teacher Showcase
The sixth and final session of the virtual Climetime professional learning series "Our Climate is Changing, Why Aren't We?" featured a showcase that provided teachers from NEWESD 101, ESD 123, ESD 105, and NCESD an opportunity to share their experiences. For this...
Building Our Understanding of How We Can Support Students to Develop Their Use of the Crosscutting Concepts Through Children’s Literature
Our Climate is Changing, Why Aren’t We? Children’s Literature Book Study convened virtually for the fifth session in late February. Engaging nearly 60 educators from across ESDs NEWESD 101 (Spokane), ESD 123 (Tri-Cities), NCESD (Wenatchee), and ESD 105 (Yakima), we...
Advocacy and Hope Continue to Support Our Learning about Climate Change Through Children’s Literature
Session Four of the virtual professional learning series “Our Climate is Changing, Why Aren’t We?” engaged nearly 70 educators from across ESDs NEWESD 101 (Spokane), ESD 123 (Tri-Cities), NCESD (Wenatchee), and ESD 171 (Yakima) in continuing to learn how to use...