Why Climate Education Matters
Climate affects every part of life—cultural, economic, environmental, and social (Djoudi et al., 2016). That's why it's becoming more important than ever for students to learn about it, no matter their field of study. Climate education helps build scientific understanding, explains how governments address climate issues, and empowers people to take action (White et al., 2022).
In agricultural courses, climate education is especially critical for understanding how a climate impacts food and fiber systems (Malhi et al., 2021). Yet, despite its importance, only 42% of teachers include climate topics in their lessons (Kamenetz, 2019). This gap leaves many students frustrated by the lack of climate justice education in their classrooms, and they feel further discouraged by the inaction of policymakers (White et al., 2022). As a result, young people often turn to social media and their peers to learn about climate issues when these discussions are missing from the classroom (Trott et al., 2023; Wallis & Loy, 2021).
How Cultivate Resilience is Helping
Cultivate Resilience is working to fill this gap by working with teachers to design locally relevant curriculum resources that focus on climate resilience and preparing students for the future workforce. By helping students develop critical thinking skills and personal agency, the program aims to empower the next generation to make informed decisions, build a resilient future, and pursue STEM careers in agriculture.
The benefits to the teacher and the student
The teachers will join an educator community of practice and will address these challenges by co-creating educational resources and experiences that are:
- Locally relevant to their learners to help engage more students.
- Focused on strategies help youth be resilient to future uncertainties and build agency to solve complex problems in food, agriculture and natural resource systems.
- Future of work cognizant to ensure that all students can see opportunities for themselves in a changing work environment and how their backgrounds can be assets and educational efforts to support learner participation in the future of work.
- Participating teachers will receive a $5,000 stipend and additional funds for books, resources and field-trips.
Students
Cultivate Resilience high school students will participate in near-peer mentoring, engage with the curriculum and experiential learning activities which will help them be better prepared for careers in a rapidly changing world.
