Climate change education: Meeting NJ’s mandate hands-on

We speak with the New Jersey School of Conservation’s Kerry Kirk Pflugh and Tanya Sulikowski, and Garwood, NJ middle school teacher, K.C. Bree about the SOC and about New Jersey’s first-in-the-nation mandate for climate change education in every grade. The SOC, a newly-reopened 75-year-old center for experiential learning and fieldwork, provides professional development as well as interdisciplinary programming for students including applied science, math, humanities, and arts in an idyllic outdoor setting. Students learn about humans’ responsibility toward other animals and the planet, and are empowered to take action.Working cooperatively, they often develop new respect for their classmates.

Overview

00:00-00:17 Intros

00:17-03:00 NJ School of Conservation (SOC)

03:00-04:31 Professional development

04:31-08:00 NJ climate change education mandate

08:00-08:30 Social emotional learning 

08:30-09:39 Correlation with state standards

09:39-11:24 Ethic of care

11:24-14:20 Garwood climate change education in elementary grades

14:20-22:43 Social emotional learning

22:43-24:54 Relationship with animals other than humans and plants

24:54-32:28 Climate change education over the next 5-10 years

32:28-33:41 SOC as a model

33:41-36:07 How do schools reach out to SOC?

36:07- Outro

Transcript

Click here to see the full transcription of this episode. 

Resources

The New Jersey School of Conservation’s website

Soundtrack by Podington Bear