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 and New Jersey Audubon 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 CBO, NJ Audubon to engage in place-based environmental education in each region.
Increase the number and content-area diversity of K-12 educators well prepared to teach high quality, standards-aligned climate change education through our CCLC.
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 please head to this tab: 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.
| Date | Time | Title | Description | Location |
| June 11, 2024 | 8:45am-11:15am | Places Based Learning (6th -12th) | Teachers from all subject areas will be led through habitat explorations including forest, field, stream, and parking lot to make observations, collect data, and discuss essential questions related to climate change impacts to ecosystems and human health. | New Jersey Audubon's Scherman Hoffman Wildlife Sanctuary |
| June 11, 2024 | 12:00pm-2:30pm | Climate Change for all Educators (6th - 12th) | 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 with NJ specific data. | New Jersey Audubon's Scherman Hoffman Wildlife Sanctuary |
| June 18, 2024 | 1:00pm-3:00pm | EcoSchools Project and Placed Based Learning (K - 5th) | Teachers will be provided an overview of place-based and project-based learning opportunities with examples of student actions projects. Teachers will learn to use the EcoSchools portal to support and document student action projects that mitigate climate change impacts. | Virtual |
| July 16, 2024 | 3:45pm-4:45pm | Introduction to Project Based Learning (6th - 12th) | How do teachers of different disciplines collaborate to create cross curricular units? Using a project based approach to drive the instruction teachers will learn tools and tips on how to develop cross curricular units. Bring a fellow member of your teaching team to help with the collaborative process. | Virtual |
| July 16, 2024 | 5:00pm-6:00pm | Climate Change for all Educators (K - 5th) | 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 with NJ specific data. | Virtual |
| July 16, 2024 | 6:15pm-7:15pm | Introduction to Project Based Learning (K - 5th) | How do teachers of different disciplines collaborate to create cross curricular units? Using a project based approach to drive the instruction teachers will learn tools and tips on how to develop cross curricular units. Bring a fellow member of your teaching team to help with the collaborative process. | Virtual |
| August 8, 2024 | 2:00pm - 4:00pm | Placed Based Learning Through the Rutgers Research Boat (K-5th) | Come learn on the Rutgers 36’ Munson research boat, cohosted with the Rutgers Math & Science Learning Center. We will be monitor the water temperature, pH, changes in flow of river, and phytoplankton production. Participants will examine data of previous experiments to assess wetland health. To find out more about the research boat check out their site https://marine.rutgers.edu/about-us/facilities/r-v-rutgers/ | Morgan Marina |
| August 8, 2024 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm | Placed Based Learning Through the Rutgers Research Boat (6th -12th) | Come learn on the Rutgers 36’ Munson research boat, cohosted with the Rutgers Math & Science Learning Center. We will be monitor the water temperature, pH, changes in flow of river, and phytoplankton production. Participants will examine data of previous experiments to assess wetland health. To find out more about the research boat check out their site https://marine.rutgers.edu/about-us/facilities/r-v-rutgers/ | Morgan Marina |
Climate Change Learning Collaboratives
Looking for more support, information, and resources to Climate Change Education check out the following sites.
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 teaches 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."