Marketing & Communications

Climate Uneducation in the US, Part 4:
Educating the Educators

Thankfully, a growing number of programs and resources have emerged to help arm US teachers with the resources and knowledge they need to teach students on climate-related topics.

By Roberto Guerra | Published 8 months ago | About a 5 minute read

Image: EcoCounts

This previous three sections of this four-part series focused on the dilemma of inadequate education in the US on the subject of climate change — a phenomenon that is already affecting the majority of the population around the globe — from primary school through to the post-graduate level.

In this fourth and final part of the series, we meet some of the organizations and people developing solutions to the problem.

Educating the educators

Organizations such as the National Science Teaching Association are working to enable teachers to confidently teach climate-related subjects by offering climate science courses for educators. And initiatives including MIT’s SCALES resource, TILclimate podcast educator guides, and CATE climate curriculum; the University of Washington’s Climate Teacher Ed Collaborative and Climate Justice League; and the NOAA’s Climate Education Program are also working to arm teachers with the resources and knowledge they need to then teach students on the topic.

Other companies, such as Impact3P — which provides sustainability consulting and other services for the corporate and education sectors — are also actively working to fill the gaps. Founder and CEO Konstantin Popovic told Sustainable Brands® (SB) that its most popular employee-engagement workshop, Climate Fresk — a gamified experience that bridges climate science and climate action — counts almost 2M participants worldwide and has been deployed by multinational companies across all sectors.

“Climate science can be complex and boring when presented in traditional teaching formats, which is what gave birth to Climate Fresk,” he said. “We call it collective intelligence — the participants work as a group to uncover causes and consequences of climate change through play before discussing individual and systemic solutions.

“Compared to classroom-style teaching, the experience also follows an emotional curve: Participants can feel somewhat overwhelmed by the scale of the problem, but then we get them back into optimism and positivity through action planning. It's a compact, three-hour block — and in that sense, an efficient way to heighten awareness, teach the science and get people to become part of the solution.”

Impact3P also offers a Junior Fresk — a simplified, 2-hour version for children ages 10-14.

Schooling schools

Not only are US schools and universities lagging in climate education, they are also major contributors to the problem. Between, lighting, cooling and heating needs, school facilities use extensive amounts of energy — the US Department of Energy estimates schools contribute as much carbon as 18 coal plants or 18 million homes — not to mention the impacts related to school buses and food waste.

As Harvard lecturer Laura Schifter pointed out in the Harvard EdCast in 2022: “The education sector actually contributes a lot to climate change. But one of the things that is also most powerful about the education sector — with nearly one in every six Americans in it — is that if you advance climate solutions within the sector, you're providing opportunities for children and youth who are enrolled to learn about climate solutions firsthand.”

Fortunately, there are private organizations taking the lead on this front, as well.

“Students do care about climate change. They prioritize sustainable choices in many other aspects of their lives, from clothing to eating to technology,” Sebastián Fernandes, founder and CEO of Fixterra — a sustainability consultancy focused exclusively on the education sector — told SB. “We specialize in helping the education sector to lead by example on what they do — not so much on what they teach. This means helping the education sector decarbonize their own operations and helping schools be more sustainable. We do this by providing consulting services to schools and universities, which includes taking action on climate change in everything they do.”

Fernandes added how his company also helps students make more conscious decisions to help manage their own environmental impacts.

“Education is one of the sectors where the demand is most disconnected from the decision makers,” he said. “Brands like Apple are now investing a lot in sustainability. Students are seeing that trend, but they are not seeing that trend fast enough in the education sector.

“One of the most important things is having everybody on board — from top leadership to all the staff; and of course, all the students — which means climate change should be in all curriculums.”

Fernandes is also the founder of Study Net Zero, a website that helps students and universities tackle the environmental issues facing civilization. According to the website, Study Net Zero empowers students to “explore the 1% of educational institutions worldwide truly committed to the climate emergency.”

Time to cram

Fortunately, these organizations offer hope that the US education system can cram to catch up to meeting the needs of students — and schools themselves — needing to learn how to adapt and thrive in a climate-changing world. Because, unlike teachers, Mother Nature isn’t likely to allow retakes.

Climate Uneducation in the US:

Roberto Guerra

Roberto Guerra is a bilingual writer, editor, entrepreneur, corporate engagement and communications specialist, and US Air Force veteran with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Universidad de la Sabana (Bogota, Colombia) and an International Master in Sustainable Development and Corporate Responsibility from EOI Business School (Madrid, Spain). Born in New York and raised in Florida, Roberto is former managing director for the Spanish-language version of vegan business magazine "vegconomist" and is also author of three novels. He has lived, worked and studied on four different continents.

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