Filling a Gap in Students’ Education
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, Seeds to Solutions™. They will be available for the 2025-2026 school year.
Seeds to Solutions will empower students to be environmentally literate, engaged community members prepared to act for the well-being of their family, broader community, and environment.
Stay Informed
- Get updates on Seeds to Solutions
- Learn about opportunities to get involved
- Receive California environmental literacy news from Ten Strands
Status Update: Winter 2024/Spring 2025
Teachers across California field tested units from Seeds to Solutions in their classrooms in fall of 2024. Based on the learning and evaluations, we are making updates to each unit before they go into final production. Please sign up for the email list to receive updates.
About Seeds to Solutions
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
Preview of Unit Topics
Each Seeds to Solutions 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 | Unit Driving Question |
|---|---|---|
| K | Observing Our World | How can we understand the world around us? |
| 1 | Food Waste | How does the food we throw away impact our community and how can we throw away less food? |
| 2 | Open Space | How does open space help people, pollinators, plants, and animals? |
| 3 | Rising Temperatures | As California gets hotter, how do we keep our communities safe? |
| 4 | Electric Energy | What is the relationship between climate change and reliable, clean electricity, and how can our community become more energy resilient? |
| 5 | Fire and Forest Management | How can Californians use fire responsibly to care for our forests? |
| 6 | Food Systems | How does a changing climate impact our food and what can we do about it? |
| 7 | Land Subsidence and Groundwater | Why is the Central Valley sinking and what can we do about it? |
| 8 | Air Quality | What is causing unhealthy air quality in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, and what can be done about it? |
| 9-10: Life Science | Managing Water for California Communities and Ecosystems | How can we manage water in California communities and ecosystems in a changing climate? |
| 9-10: Physical Science | Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Consumerism | What impact do consumer products have on global greenhouse gas emissions? |
| 11: Intro to Environmental Justice | Engaging in Research | Why does environmental injustice persist, and what can we do about it? |
| 12: Environmental Justice Case Studies | Conducting Case Studies | How does bringing together many different types of evidence make an effective case for environmental justice? |
Program Partners and Advisors
A Unique, Community-Driven Development Process
Most curriculum is developed by publishing companies. We wanted to do something different. From the outset, we wanted Seeds to Solutions 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 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
