Climate Change Learning Collaborative

Climate Change Education Collaborative Banner

Professional Learning in Climate Change for K-12 Educators

Stockton University is pleased to announce the establishment of a new regional center funded by the New Jersey Department of Education. The Climate Change Learning Collaborative (CCLC) will help prepare and support K-12 educators as they implement the NJ Student Learning Standards in Climate Change.

Led by a team that includes faculty and staff from the School of Education, including its SRI&ETTC, and faculty from the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and the School of Arts and Humanities, the Climate Change Learning Collaboration (CCLC) will provide professional learning opportunities, provided by Stockton faculty as well as community-based organizations and agencies that are currently participating in climate-based programming and advocacy.  K-12 teachers will learn to develop, deliver, and assess high-quality lesson plans for their students that incorporate experiential experiences and activities for their students across interdisciplinary curriculum areas.

The CCLC at Stockton University serves the following New Jersey counties: Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Ocean, and Salem.

This project is directed by Dr. Kimberly Lebak, Professor of Education, and Ms. Patty Weeks, Director of the Southern Regional Institute and ETTC (SRI&ETTC) at Stockton University. 


No Planet BThe project will draw upon the unique environmental location of Stockton University. Stockton University's main campus is located in the Pinelands National Reserves while Stockton University's Atlantic City campus is located on the Atlantic coastline.  The Pinelands National Reserves makes up approximately one million acres, or 20% of New Jersey's land area.  The Pine Barrens is a rare ecosystem that is home to 43 threatened or endangered animal species and 92 threatened or endangered plant species.  The Atlantic coastline includes a wide range of ecosystems including marshes, wetlands, and beaches and is home to many kinds of plants and animals. The coastal wetlands provide valuable nursery, feeding, breeding, staging, and resting areas for many fish, shellfish, mammals, and birds. The environmental challenges and impact of climate change on our unique community ecosystems have been well documented and will provide the foundation for the proposed project.

For more information and resources visit the NJDOE Climate Change Page


K-12 educators will be able to choose from six core PD workshops

These will be offered multiple times throughout the next 10 months.

Core 1

Understanding Climate Change:
Provides a broad understanding of climate change in our world focusing specifically on greenhouse gases (including fossil fuel and farms and agriculture), that affects climate change, namely global warming, and responses to both in terms of mitigation and adaptation.

Core 2

Climate Change and Our Community:
How Climate Change Impacts our Community Coastline - incorporates an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the facets of climate change. The components, processes, vulnerabilities, and resiliency of coastal systems along with the capacity of coastal systems to cope with climate change.

Core 3

Climate Change and Our Community:
How Climate Change Impacts the NJ Pinelands - The specific challenges of this ecosystem include increased wildfires, invasion of insect species, instability of forest composition, sea level rise, brackish water, change in water quality, and mediation efforts.

Core 4 Designing Interdisciplinary PBL Units Aligned to NJSLS in Climate Change:
Development and assessment of high-quality interdisciplinary curriculum materials that can be taught in the K-12 classroom conducted in two groups - elementary, and middle/secondary which will be further separated by grade-band groupings.   
Core 5 Teaching Interdisciplinary PBL Units on Climate Change Aligned to NJSLS and Incorporating Experiential Learning:
Implementation of interdisciplinary project-based units of study and experiential learning experiences.  Workshops will be grade level specific and will have an interdisciplinary focus for all content areas.
Core 6

Choosing and Evaluating High Quality Resources:
How to choose, develop, and assess high quality instructional resources. 

 

CORE workshops will be supplemented with programming offered by our community-based partners including:

teacher expaining solar panel

  • Wetlands Institute
  • Save Barnegat Bay
  • NJ Audubon
  • Center for Aquatic Sciences
  • Sustainable NJ

 

All programming at Stockton’s CCLC is available at no cost to school districts.  However, pre-registration is required.

* Workshops will be repeated throughout the school year and will also be available online.


CCLC Contact Form for project staff

Climate Change Learning Collaborative Websites

Stockton University Monmouth College Rutgers University Ramapo College of New Jersey
Stockton University Monmouth College Rutgers Ramapo