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 |
| June 11, 2025 | 6:00pm- 8:00pm | 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 |
| June 23, 2025 | 9:00am - 3:00pm | From Land to Water: Water health in time of climate change | What we do on land does not stay on land. The choices we make on what we do on our property can impact the waters nearby as rain and runoff pick-up and move pollutants from their point of origin to our waterways. In a time of climate change when precipitation is highly variable these pollutants are more likely to affect our local and regional water quality. Join us for a tour of New Brunswick infrastructure and landscape and a boat trip on the Raritan River to learn more about how we monitor water quality in general and pathogen monitoring more specifically, and about solutions to divert the pollutants from our waterways. This full-day workshop will be followed up with a webinar (August 14th, 4PM EDT) to explore instructional resources related to the Lower Raritan watershed, and water quality monitoring. | Rutgers Boat House from 9:00am - 11:30 am & Morgan Marina 1:00 pm - 3:00pm |
| June 26, 2025 | 3:30pm-5:30pm | Climate 101 | 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 specific data. | Virtual |
| July 10, 2025 | 9:00am-11:30pm | Dealing with Climate Emotions | We described/defined various climate emotions and offered strategies for students and teachers on how to manage those feelings. We help teachers and students identify feelings, normalize the feelings, and give examples of youth advocating for climate justice. | Rutgers Campus |
| July 10, 2025 | 12:30pm-2:30pm | Project Based Learning | This will build off of Year 1 Introduction to Project Based Learning PD and provide you with the chance to continue working on Climate PBLs for your curriculum. Come with lessons, activities, and ideas on how to integrate climate change into the classroom. We are going to be working as teams in the STEM or Humanities areas to share what we have been doing in the classroom, as well as the chance to work on a new climate curriculum. Rutgers faculty will be supporting this work as well. We will also be showcasing our lending library and all the materials you have assess to be able to use with your curriculum. | Rutgers Campus |
| July 14, 2025 | 9:30am-2:00pm | Place Based Learning at the Rutgers Snyder Research Farm | Climate Change, Farming, & Solar! Teachers will explore the effects of shifting climate patterns on agriculture and renewable energy, getting an overview of climate change data and research. Then teachers will have the opportunity to tour the Rutgers Snyder Research Farm. During the tour, we will also be stopping at the Solar panels that have been placed on the farm and are part of the Rutgers Agrivoltaics Program. Part of the research team from the Rutgers Agrivoltaics Program will be there to present on the research taking place at several of Rutgers’s farms with solar panels, including A.J Both (Extension Specialist, Department of Environmental Science), Peter J. Nitzsche (Director, Snyder Research and Extension Farm), and James Schope (Assistant Extension Specialist, Department of Environmental Science). There will be a focus on blue/green jobs in the solar industry and farming, if 1% of the United States farms had solar systems, that would be enough to power the US! | Rutgers Snyder Research Farm |
| August 12, 2025 | 9:00am - 3:00pm | From Land to Water: Water health in time of climate change | What we do on land does not stay on land. The choices we make on what we do on our property can impact the waters nearby as rain and runoff pick-up and move pollutants from their point of origin to our waterways. In a time of climate change when precipitation is highly variable these pollutants are more likely to affect our local and regional water quality. Join us for a tour of New Brunswick infrastructure and landscape and a boat trip on the Raritan River to learn more about how we monitor water quality in general and pathogen monitoring more specifically, and about solutions to divert the pollutants from our waterways. This full-day workshop will be followed up with a webinar (August 14th, 4PM EDT) to explore instructional resources related to the Lower Raritan watershed, and water quality monitoring. | Rutgers Boat House from 9:00am - 11:30 am & Morgan Marina 1:00 pm - 3:00pm |
| August 19, 2025 | 9:00am-11:00am | 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. | Rutgers Campus |
| August 19, 2025 | 12:00pm-2:00pm | Healing justice: Centering Care in the Struggle to Fight Climate Change | 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 | Rutgers Campus |
| August 26, 2025 | 9:00am-12:00pm | Beavers & Eels: Engineering in the Natural World | Dive into the fascinating lives of two often-overlooked yet ecologically vital species—the American beaver and the American eel—in this hands-on workshop. Participants will explore how beavers shape landscapes and create habitats that can benefit entire ecosystems, while also learning about the extraordinary migratory journey of eels and their role in freshwater biodiversity. Participants will visit Fairview Farm Wildlife Preserve and observe an active beaver habitat, and observe live aquatic creatures as we gather data from an eel ladder and eel mop. This workshop blends science, history, and environmental stewardship to inspire student curiosity and ecological literacy. | Raritan Headwaters: Fairview Farm Wildlife Preserve |
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."