Filling a Gap in Students’ Education
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Students are noticing extreme heat, flooding, wildfires, and other effects of climate change in their communities. But teachers do not have access to instructional materials on these or related topics that are California-specific.
To meet this need, the California Legislature called for the creation of instructional materials for grades K–12 about climate change and environmental justice.
Ten Strands is proud to be the San Mateo County Office of Education’s partner in developing these groundbreaking instructional materials. They are scheduled for completion in spring 2025.
These lessons will empower students to be environmentally literate, engaged community members prepared to act for the well-being of their family, broader community, and environment.
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Stay Informed
- Get updates on the instructional materials
- Learn about opportunities to get involved
- Receive California environmental literacy news from Ten Strands
Status Update: Summer/Fall 2024
Drafts of each grade-level unit are complete or near completion. Some units were field tested in spring 2024; we are currently recruiting teachers to participate in field testing in fall 2024. The units will be revised based on learning and evaluation from the field test.
About the Instructional Materials
Engages and empowers by sparking student curiosity
- Students get the opportunity to investigate age-appropriate, California-specific environmental issues and solutions
- Inquiry-based Storyline approach to learning helps students learn how to think, not what to think
- Mindful of students’ personal experiences with environmental issues, like wildfire and flooding
Supports teachers in meeting state standards
- Free supplemental resources that align to state standards, Environmental Principles & Concepts, and frameworks
- One 15-hour unit of instruction at each grade level; integration with science, history-social science, mathematics, and English language arts
- Culturally relevant and includes the experiences of youth and communities statewide
What Teachers Are Saying
Sneak Preview of Select Units
Each K–12 grade-level unit contains 15 instructional hours. Lessons are driven by student questions — >What does food need to grow? Where does electricity come from? How do smaller fires prevent bigger fires? — with sources for students to seek answers. Also included are variations on a culminating engagement, where students develop an explanatory model for the environmental challenge and identify possible solutions.
Grade | Topic | Driving Question |
---|---|---|
1 | Food Waste | How does the food we throw away impact our community and how can we waste less food? |
5 | Fire & Forest Management | How is climate change impacting the frequency, intensity, and impacts of wildfires? |
7 | Land Subsidence | Why is the Central Valley sinking, and what can we do about it? |
8 | Air Quality | What is causing unhealthy air quality in the Inland Empire, and what can we do about it? |
11 | Uneven Effects of Disasters | Why does environmental injustice persist, and what can we do about it? |
Program Partners and Advisors
![210218_10S_logo_square_ 210218_10S_logo_square_](https://tenstrands.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/210218_10S_logo_square_.png)
![CDE Seal – Color CDE Seal - Color](https://tenstrands.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/CDE-Seal-Color-1.jpg)
![San Mateo County Office of Education Logo San Mateo County Office of Education Logo](https://tenstrands.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/San-Mateo-County-Office-of-Education-Logo.png)
A Unique, Community-Driven Development Process
Most curriculum is developed by publishing companies. We wanted to do something different. From the outset, we wanted these instructional materials to reflect the experiences of California communities closest to the problem of climate change and environmental injustice.
The development process intentionally taps the expertise of community-based organizations, experts in climate science and traditional ecological knowledge, curriculum-development specialists, and teacher and youth leaders.
Community-Based Organizational Partners
Groups working with communities most impacted by climate change who have contributed to the topics and direction for each grade level unit
Curriculum-Development Experts
Organizations with deep experience developing open education resources focused on climate change and environmental justice and supporting professional learning
- BSCS Science Learning
- California Subject Matter Project
- Concord Consortium
- The Climate Collective