CMSCE has leveraged their expertise in pedagogical practices in STEM to work with leading experts from around Rutgers in climate change to create resources for k-12 educators. Rutgers University, New Jersey Audubon, Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership, and Raritan Headwaters have been awarded one of the NJDOE Climate Change Grants - Expanding Access to Climate Change and NJ Student Learning Through Climate Change Learning Collaborative. The overarching goals and expectations of this grant program are to:
Establish a statewide network to support LEAs in implementing climate change education through the creation of a Central NJ CCLC at Rutgers-NB, with the support of CBOs NJ Audubon, Raritan Headwaters, and Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership to engage in place-based environmental education in each region.
The CCLC at Rutgers University serves the following New Jersey counties: Hunterdon, Middlesex, and Somerset.
Upcoming Climate Change PD
Teachers and administrators from New Jersey public schools are eligible to attend Climate Change Learning Collaborative events and use services provided by the Climate Change Learning Collaborative. PDs are sponsored by the NJDOE Climate Change Grant allowing for the PDs to be free of charge. Please make sure to register for any of the PDs you would like to attend.
To register, click : PD for Teachers
Teachers from New Jersey public schools are eligible to receive a stipend for attending Climate Change Learning Collaborative events outside contracted hours and substitute teacher coverage for attending Climate Change Learning Collaborative events held during contracted hours. Teachers will be required to complete a post-event survey to receive a stipend or substitute teacher coverage. If you have any questions please email climatechangeeducation@docs.rutgers.edu.
Please note there are several PDs that are repeated to give access to as many teachers. Make sure when signing up you have not previously attended the PD. If you have any questions don't hesitate to reach out to us.
| Date | Time | Title | Description | Location |
September 23, 2025 Full | 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm | Placed based Learning: Climate Change & Impact on Birds | How climate change impacts birds and migration in New Jersey and how students can make a difference. | Virtual |
| September 24, 2025 | 10:00 am - 2:00 pm | Climate 101 & Wildfires | This workshop will prepare teachers of all subject areas to teach Climate Change Standards that are required in NJ. Through this PD, teachers will get an overview of climate change and the newest research/data that Rutgers has to share for NJ. We will also cover how climate change can affect wildfires in New Jersey though changes to rainfall and how we can address wildfire challenges. | Rutgers Campus |
| October 2, 2025 | 9:00 am - 2:00 pm | Place-Based Learning: Scherman Hoffman | An experiential learning experience for K-12 teachers to consider the effects of climate change on the land, water, and air quality. Using engaging activities, we will explore the intersection of human activity and climate change, including the impacts of severe weather events and storm water runoff, the human health effects of air pollution, and how birds and other animals are affected by increasing temperatures and changing habitats. | Scherman Hoffman |
| October 3, 2025 | 10:00 am - 1:00 pm | Currents of Change: Ecology by Kayak | Join us for a workshop that brings science and history to life—by kayak! Paddling along the South Branch of the Raritan River, educators will explore the interconnected stories of creatures large and small, from American eels to benthic macroinvertebrates and algae, as well as the lasting impact of dams on aquatic ecosystems. Through hands-on water sampling, species identification, and historical site exploration, teachers will gain practical tools to integrate environmental science, local history, and sustainability into their curriculum. This workshop emphasizes place-based learning and real-world connections to their local watershed. | South Branch Raritan River |
| October 13, 2025 | 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm | Impacts on Human & Public Health of Climate Change | We will cover basic concepts, definitions and known and potential impacts on human/public health of climate change including extreme weather events and natural disasters. We will include two major interactive activities, with handouts and Mentimeter polling, both of which teachers could use or modify for use with minors and adults (students and other teachers and staff or even parents) at their districts/schools. Topics include sustainability, climate change and energy/water efficiency and conservation plus the connections among these topics and with human health at individual and community level. | Math & Science Learning Center, Rutgers University |
| October 20, 2025 | 10:00 am - 12:00 pm | Bridging the Past and Present | This workshop empowers middle school educators to integrate climate change education into social studies by connecting historical lessons from ancient civilizations to contemporary environmental challenges. Through examples and workshop discussions, participants will collaborate with facilitators and each other to identify strategies, resources, and interdisciplinary approaches that foster critical thinking about sustainability, resilience, and the human-environment connection. Attendees will be equipped to inspire students to draw meaningful parallels between historical events and our shared responsibility for a sustainable future. | Math & Science Learning Center, Rutgers University |
| October 28, 2025 | Place-Based Learning: Scherman Hoffman | 9:00 am - 2:00 pm | An experiential learning experience for K-12 teachers to consider the effects of climate change on the land, water, and air quality. Using engaging activities, we will explore the intersection of human activity and climate change, including the impacts of severe weather events and storm water runoff, the human health effects of air pollution, and how birds and other animals are affected by increasing temperatures and changing habitats. | Scherman Hoffman |
| October 29, 2025 | Overview of NJ Adapt and How to Use in Your Classroom | 4:00 pm- 5:30 pm | Join us on October 29 from 4:00–5:30 pm for a professional development session introducing NJ ADAPT, a suite of data-visualization and mapping tools developed by Rutgers University. NJ ADAPT is designed to help planners, community leaders, businesses, educators, and residents better understand and respond to the impacts of climate change on people, assets, and communities across New Jersey. During this session, participants will receive an overview of the tools as well as explore sample lessons that demonstrate how they can be used in educational settings to support student learning and engagement with climate change issues. Teachers will also find out about an opportunity to help create their own lessons using NJ ADAPT. | Virtual |
| November 12, 2025 | Healing justice: Centering Care in the Struggle to Fight Climate Change | 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm | Young people are among the more vulnerable groups to the impacts of climate change. Even those students who have not been directly affected by climate change may struggle emotionally when learning about climate change and its impacts. In this workshop we draw on the healing justice framework with its emphasis on self-expression through art and storytelling. We will focus on strategies, in particular movement-based approaches, for creating learning environments that center care and support students in finding the power and joy to fight climate change | Math & Science Learning Center, Rutgers University |
| November 12, 2025 | Reading the Climate | 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm | A Standards-Aligned Approach to Integrating Informational Text in Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies (K-5) | Math & Science Learning Center, Rutgers University |
| November 17, 2025 | Impacts on Human & Public Health of Climate Change | 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm | We will cover basic concepts, definitions and known and potential impacts on human/public health of climate change including extreme weather events and natural disasters. We will include two major interactive activities, with handouts and Mentimeter polling, both of which teachers could use or modify for use with minors and adults (students and other teachers and staff or even parents) at their districts/schools. Topics include sustainability, climate change and energy/water efficiency and conservation plus the connections among these topics and with human health at individual and community level. | Math & Science Learning Center, Rutgers University |
| December 9, 2025 | Reading the Climate | 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm | A Standards-Aligned Approach to Integrating Informational Text in Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies (K-5) | Math & Science Learning Center, Rutgers University |
| January 13, 2026 | Incorporating Informational Text Across Content Areas | 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm | A cross-disciplinary approach to deepen understanding of real-world issues, like climate change, through informational text, while meeting literacy standards in science, social studies, and language arts. | Rutgers Lifelong Learning Center |
| January 26, 2026 | Public Health Aspects of Environ-mental and Social Justice as Related to Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events | 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm | We will cover basic concepts, definitions and known and potential impacts of environmental and social injustices on human/public health in the context of recent extreme weather events and natural disasters connected to climate change. We will include 3-4 interactive activities, using brief 1-2 pages fact sheets/supplemental readings and videos/movie trailers (~3-7 minutes long each) plus Mentimeter polling/word clouds, which teachers could use or modify for use with minors and adults (students and other teachers and staff or even parents) at their districts/schools. Topics will cover a brief history of EJ in the U.S. early 1980s-2020s; issues with quality of air, water, soil/sediment, and the location and clean-up status of Superfund or abandoned hazardous waste sites (State of NJ has most among U.S. states). | Math & Science Learning Center, Rutgers University |
| January 27, 2026 | Placed based Learning | 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm | How climate change impacts birds and migration in New Jersey and how students can make a difference. | Virtual |
The Rutgers University Climate Change Learning Collaborative is funded by a grant from the New Jersey Department of Education. This material and any opinions, results, conclusions, or recommendations expressed within are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the New Jersey Department of Education nor constitute an endorsement thereof.
Climate Change Learning Collaboratives
Looking for more support, information, and resources to Climate Change Education check out the following sites.
LEAs District Partners
Dunellen Public Schools Somerville Public School District Sayreville School District
Climate Change PD Reviews & Feedback
Rutgers Today - Rutgers Partners with New Jersey Schools to Develop Historic Climate Change Curriculum
NJ Spotlight News - Climate Change: Rutgers helps teachers to include it in curriculum
NorthJersey.com -Climate Change is now part of NJ school curricula. Rutgers shares its resources.
The Daily Targum - NJ First Lady Tammy Murphy visits U., speaks to public school teachers about climate education
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."