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Originally appears in the Summer 2020 issue.

By Jane Heinze-Fry

“We say that in times of great environmental change, all species are faced with the challenge: adapt, migrate, or perish. When COVID-19 spread throughout the globe, stretching across the United States and resulting in massive school closures, we adapted our professional learning institute by substituting virtual sessions for the on-site sessions.”

Flashback

Foundation

I was so excited to be doing exactly what I had been dreaming about for years. During the Fall, with the staff of the Wade Institute for Science Education (formerly the Museum Institute for Teaching Science), I developed a 10-week course to offer middle and high school teachers. Our Climate, Our Communities: Science, Systems, and Solutions was built on the foundations of Wade’s commitment to hands-on, minds-on inquiry-based education and research into the best practices for climate change education. Research by Munroe et al. had suggested that “two themes were common to most environmental education: (1) focusing on personally relevant and meaningful information and (2) using active and engaging teaching methods. Four themes specific to issues such as climate change were also generated: (1) engaging in deliberative discussions, (2) interacting with scientists, (3) addressing misconceptions, and (4) implementing school or community projects.”