Resources — Events
Listening Session IV: How Can Schools Support Teaching and Learning to Address Climate Change?
Join us for Listening Session IV: How Can Schools Support Teaching and Learning to Address Climate Change? While schools transition toward sustainable operations and build resilience, educators can support teaching and learning on sustainability, the environment, and climate change to help ensure over 50 million students are equipped with the knowledge and skills to advance a more sustainable and resilient future. This listening session will focus on how educators can prepare a new generation of students to address climate change. Panelists will share their experiences developing and implementing instruction around climate change and sustainability.
Panelists
Frank Niepold is the Senior Climate Education Program Manager and Coordinator at NOAA's Climate Program Office. In this role, he develops and implements NOAA's climate goal education and engagement efforts that specifically relate to NOAA's climate goal and literacy objective. Frank is the Teaching Climate lead for NOAA’s Climate.gov web portal and federal lead for the CLEAN Collection that offers reviewed learning activities and curriculum materials, multimedia resources, and professional development opportunities for formal and informal educators who want to incorporate climate science into their work. He is also a co-founder of the CLEAN Network and serves in leadership roles with several domestic and international climate change and climate education initiatives. Frank is the federal lead for the Action for Climate Empowerment National Strategic Planning Framework for the United States. Previously, Frank developed education resources for NASA, the GLOBE Program, and taught middle and high school Earth science and technology. Frank received a M.S. Ed. in Earth Space Science Education from John's Hopkins University with areas of concentration in Earth Observing Systems, Scientist/Teacher/Student Collaboration and Earth Systems science education focused on climate.
Dr. Carrie Tzou is a professor in science education in the University of Washington Bothell School of Educational Studies and Director of the Goodlad Institute for Educational Renewal. She is also a co-Principal Investigator for Learning in Places, a project to build outdoor learning spaces and partner with local families and communities in Seattle while developing robust learning materials K-3 educators, students, and their families to engage in complex ecological reasoning and decision-making. Her research connects with an interest in addressing issues of culture, identity, and equity in science and environmental science learning. Dr. Tzou holds a PhD in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University and an M.S. in Teaching and Learning with a concentration in science education from Vanderbilt University.
Jennifer LeBret is the Native Youth Community Director for the Spokane Tribe and serves as the Chairwoman for the Washington Office of Public Instruction’s Washington State Native American Education Advisory Committee. Jennifer has seven plus years of experience in Native American Education, with a focus on curriculum development and delivery. She holds a Master of Education in Social and Behavioral Health from Whitworth University and is a member of the Spokane Tribe.
Melissa Lau is a 6th grade science teacher at Piedmont Intermediate in Piedmont, Oklahoma with 20 years of experience. Melissa has lived her whole life in Oklahoma. She spent her childhood exploring the outdoors and sparking her love and curiosity for nature. She feels through her teaching she can instill some of that spark in her students. In 2018, Melissa was selected as a PolarTREC educator and spent 32 days studying phenology and vegetation change in the warming Arctic on the north slope of Alaska with a team of researchers from Florida International University. In 2019, she was selected as the Oklahoma Science Teaching Association Middle-Level Teacher of the Year. She also serves as a National Center for Science Education Teacher Ambassador for climate change piloting lessons to teach climate change head-on, without confrontation. Melissa was a member of the writing team for Oklahoma Academic Standards-Science revisions and serves in leadership roles in her building and as the Piedmont Association of Educators President.
