New Publication and Webinar Series: Teacher Call to Action for Environmental Literacy

As educators and researchers, the Center for Community and Citizen Science is focused on joining young people in the work of learning, doing, and using science to improve the world we share. This means thinking about young people as community leaders and people who do science. We have been working to support educators and educational leaders at both the district and state levels to better understand ways in which citizen science and environmental literacy more broadly can be used to deepen both student learning and development of environmental science agency.

The CCCS’ Youth Education Program Manager, Peggy Harte, has been working with the California Environmental Literacy Innovation Hub to develop professional learning resources and opportunities for California educators, as well as professional learning providers, looking to focus more on environmental literacy and stewardship. Recently, Ms. Harte co-authored The Teacher Call to Action for Environmental Literacy, a three-part publication developed for educators by educators. Part 1 outlines the Imperatives for Environmental Literacy and defines the field and recounts its development in California. Part 2 Voices from the Field presents the CCCS’s case studies as examples of effective instruction across settings and at every grade level in addition to a variety of fellowships in San Mateo County. Part 3: Roadmap for instruction describes steps to increase Environmental Literacy integration.

We hope teachers and professional learning providers far and wide are able to utilize this resource as well as the webinar series to move student engagement in environmental stewardship forward within their community.