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Teaching Climate Change
EDU T801

Course Information

Description

Climate Change is an existential threat to life on Earth. The responsibility for creating atmospheric CO2 is not shared across the world’s populations or successive generations and yet it has wrought environmental injustice impacting the most vulnerable populations and has created intractable challenges for young people and future generations. How we teach about climate change is critical to our response as a global population. Educators adopt a longitudinal view on the outcomes of their daily efforts—guiding each generation with hope and possibility. How do we communicate with urgency despite the uncertainties in the exact outcomes even while we are certain that climate change is real and is happening around us? How do we communicate the loss of what might be called a pact between the generations to the next generation? What can we do to "get it right" and to live sustainably on a changing planet? This course offers an intensive opportunity to explore issues related to teaching climate change in K-12. It invites a series of conversations about the following topics: 1) How do scientists explain the dynamics of climate change and what are some of the challenges in learning the science concepts?; 2) How does attending to climate change fit with what is known about the cognitive and emotional architecture of human minds and what are the implications for instruction?; 3) What are ways of knowing and being in relation with Earth and nature that respect the connectedness, systems dynamics, and language of nature. How can we learn from and bring pluralistic and diverse epistemologies to our teaching?; 4) How can we support young people in navigating between anxiety/despair and hope/action?; 5) How do the politics of climate change interact with our teaching? The course meets for all day for two weeks with a structured three-hour morning session (includes mini-lecture, activities, active processing, simulation games) and brainstorming/workshopping afternoon session to support students in developing a project to build and reveal their understanding of course concepts. This is followed by events including films, guest lectures, simulation games, and discussions.
 

Class Notes

Please note that students may add, drop, or change the grading basis for J-Term courses in My.Harvard until January 5th. Beginning January 6th, students who wish to drop a J-Term course and have the DRP removed from their transcript must email registrar@gse.harvard.edu. This request must be submitted before 8:00am on 1/6/2026. 

School Graduate School of Education
Credits 4
Cross Reg

Available for Harvard Cross Registration

Department Education
Course Component Lecture
Instruction Mode In Person
Subject Education
Grading Basis HGSE Student Option (Letter Graded, Sat/Unsat)
Learning Goals Participants will understand: 1. challenges inherent in helping learners understand and respond to climate change. 2. cognitive and learning sciences findings that reveal how human minds reason about climate change concepts. 3. how multiple epistemologies can be a part of our teaching and help learners to see different ways of being in relation to Earth. 4. developmental and affective perspectives that influence climate change understanding and action. 5. the tension between despair and hope and the connection between hope and action. 6. how politics influence understandings about climate change and how they interact with teaching. 7. How innovation and design can play an essential role in adapting to a changing climate and increasing our chances of "getting it right."
Career Focus Understanding and dealing with a changing climate is relevant to all careers. This course focuses specifically on teaching others about climate change so it is highly relevant to educators.