With the passing of NJ’s new climate change learning standards CMSCE has developed several Climate Change PDs to support schools in implementing these standards. Here is a list of several PDs that we have run that go with Climate Change. All are open to modifications based on district needs for grade levels, time windows, student groups etc… We would be happy to discuss any of the PDs and provide an agenda or further explanation.

 

 

 

Climate Change PD 

 

Climate Change PD Reviews & Feedback 

Feedback from our April 27, 2023 Climate Change Workshop:

A NJ High School teacher said "Thank you so much for hosting an amazing event. I have been teaching a bit, and sometimes I can be jaded about workshops and conferences, my standard for success is if I have a meaningful takeaway,  and yesterday I had a ton of takeaways, I am very grateful for the live document (that is brilliant)  and even with that,  I have 4 pages of ideas I wrote down during the workshop. The content was very meaningful and will be changing the content I am working on for the rest of the year, and how I will be doing things next year. Seeing different disciplines each talk about the same graph left me gobsmacked. That was a wow,  and I hope that it was filmed, and can be put as a vignette on youtube or somewhere other platform."

Professional Development:
Climate Change For All: Prepare Teachers of All Subject Areas to teach Climate Change Standards that are required in NJ! With the adoption of the NJ Climate Change Standards you may be wondering how to implement them into your classroom or wanting a better understanding of climate change. Through this PD you will get an overview of climate change and the newest research/data that Rutgers has to share for NJ specific data.
Leveraging PBL and Design Challenge Approaches to Meet Climate Change Standards: You will get to discover how to use project-based learning and engineering design challenges to solve environmental and climate change problems. See how K-12 students can embrace the design process across all subject areas. You’ll learn how to apply the steps of the engineering design process to develop solutions to climate issues.
Climate Change PD Series for support with developing and implementing climate change curriculum. Through the support of Rutgers CMSCE & Rutgers Climate Institute we have developed climate change PDs and ways to support climate change curriculum development for all subject areas. We will start with a 1 day PD on Climate Change and then support curriculum development over several shorter or longer PD sessions over the course of several days throughout the year.
Hydroponics Professional Development

Full Day - In Person @ Rutgers

In this full-day session, K-12 teachers will be immersed in the engineering design process as they experience a complete PBL for introducing hydroponics gardening to their students. In addition, each participant will receive hydroponics equipment/supplies and instructional materials necessary for replicating the design challenge in their own classroom with students this year:

  • Curriculum/Instruction - Hydroponics PBL Unit Plan (K-5, Secondary)
  • Assessment - Engineering Notebook (K-5, Secondary)
  • Plant Germination Station: Grow Dome, Rockwool Insert, Grow Light, Timer, Seeds, Nutrients, PH/Temp Meter, Reflective Mylar, Heat Mat (additional fee)
  • Soda Bottle Hydroponics System Design Challenge Supplies: Tubing, Wicking Material, Expanded Clay Pellets (additional materials fee)
  • 1 Hydroponic 5G Drip System (additional materials fee; demonstration unit for the classroom)

Half-Day - In Person @ Rutgers

In this half-day session, K-12 teachers will learn about the basics of hydroponics gardening, and explore different ways this topic is being used by teachers to address climate change in classroom settings. Participants will learn how to plant and germinate seeds in the classroom without any soil, and participate in demonstration lessons comparing and contrasting the benefits and tradeoffs associated with conventional farming and hydroponics gardening. Teachers in this session will receive

  • Plant Germination Station: Grow Dome, Rockwool Insert, Grow Light, Timer, Seeds, Nutrients, PH/Temp Meter, Reflective Mylar, Heat Mat (additional fee)
  • 1 Hydroponic 5G Drip System (additional fee; demonstration unit for the classroom)

2-Day In-District PD @ Your School

Are you interested in bringing the joy of hydroponics to your school district with on-site support from Rutgers CMSCE? In this innovative PD model, Rutgers will take over your classroom on Day 1, to introduce hydroponics, germinate seedlings, set up your classroom 5G drip system and provide an overview of the Hydroponics Soda Bottle Design Challenge (Note - most of this day is spent with you and your students, but it is ideal to be able to work with the teachers alone during preps/free periods). After Day 1, the teacher can schedule to bring Rutgers staff back to the classroom for another full day of in class support in order to facilitate the “prototyping” step of the design process. Participants will receive the following:

  • 2 Full Days of On-Site support from Rutgers staff (mostly in your classroom with students, however, it will be necessary to meet with teachers alone during their prep times in order to spend time with unit planning and pedagogy)
  • Curriculum/Instruction - Hydroponics PBL Unit Plan (K-5, Secondary)
  • Assessment - Engineering Notebook (K-5, Secondary)
  • Plant Germination Station: Grow Dome, Rockwool Insert, Grow Light, Timer, Seeds, Nutrients, PH/Temp Meter, Reflective Mylar, Heat Mat (additional materials fee)
  • Soda Bottle Hydroponics System Design Challenge Supplies: Tubing, Wicking Material, Expanded Clay Pellets (additional materials fee)
  • 1 Hydroponic 5G Drip System (additional materials fee; demonstration unit for the classroom)

* The benefit of this model is that teachers would not need to pay for/secure a substitute on these days, as teachers will be in the classroom with the students, however, it is important for the teacher to be free for 1-on-1 planning time for at least two class periods with Rutgers staff to plan without students present.

We also have no problem developing a PD that is not on the list but you would like your teachers to learn. So if you have a specific topic in Climate Change you want us to teach we can also create those PDs. Here is a list of possible topics.

Other Climate Change Topics to build a grant around: