The Collective Journey to Maintain a Goldilocks Climate, And Our Role As Educators

Humanity has flourished for millennia in a stable climate. That is now at risk, and climate instability is a great cause for concern. However, addressing this challenge can also be a catalyst for positive change, and for a new collective way of thinking, educating, and acting as a more connected society.

We'll discuss the causes and challenges of the climate dynamic, and discuss how addressing climate change can play out in the educational setting, potentially leading to a more integrated approach to learning and living.

How Do Schools Approach the Issue of Climate Through Curriculum and Action?

We will consider the carbon implications of the international school setting, ranging from physical plant to travel. We'll review the internationally agreed-upon framework of managing carbon (Scopes 1 - 3), apply that to relevant school activities, and discuss the following:

1. What we as a community can do to minimize our carbon footprint, and
2. Where we can integrate these activities and learning exercises into the classroom - extending beyond the obvious STEM applications.

The goal is to help reframe the narrative, and provide children with more agency in addressing this enormous physical (and often psychological and emotional) challenge.

CONNECT & ENGAGE

The workshop will dissect the carbon implications of the international learning experience, and frame it within the context of the international Science-Based Targets Initiative. We will look at:

• Scope 1: Direct emissions from travel;
• Scope 2: Electricity; and
• Scope 3: Supply Chain

We will highlight where the institution faces the greatest exposure, and explore some short- and medium-term actions that may be taken to address these emissions.

LEARN

School leaders will identify the high-level resulting strategies necessary to create a decarbonization path, and discuss how these can be addressed as activities, as well as content for education and engagement in the classroom.

We'll address questions such as:

• How does one present the issue of carbon to students of various age levels?
• What activities can be integrated into the curriculum, and what specific learning outcomes can we develop?
• Is it possible (or advisable) to create a "thread" from one year to the next, providing both continuity and increasing levels of context around the carbon issue?

REFLECT & APPLY

What will you as a educator do to inform, engage, and educate your students so that they have both a realistic awareness of the climate issues as well as the potential for increased agency in the face of an admittedly existential challenge?

And how do we as an education community create an integrated approach to teaching about environmental issues?