In the spring of 2022, Regional Science Coordinators met to reflect on Climate Literacy work completed in 2021-22. A few patterns began to emerge. The first pattern was that elementary teachers were excited to bring climate science to their classrooms, but unsure of...
Partner stories
These stories are a collection of educator professional learning experiences and opportunities provided by ESD, CBO and Tribal School partners.
ESD 123
ESD 123 is engaging K-12 teachers in groundbreaking, place-based professional learning with a variety of community partners around climate science, career connections, human impacts and resources. These transformative experiences for teachers will translate into authentic learning for their students.
EarthGen Expands Climate Justice League Statewide
Teacher Casey Jones’ family includes migrant farmworkers, whose lives are directly affected by climate change and social injustice. The students at Rowena Chess Elementary School where Casey teaches also see the effects of these twin crises in their daily lives....
Monitoring Salmon as the Climate Changes
Upper elementary and middle school teachers across ESD 123 joined Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) fisheries experts and STEM education specialists to engage in a virtual, immersive, hands-on and collaborative learning experience. Together Teachers and...
PEI’s Solar Energy Workshop Brings Educators and Energy Professionals Together
Educators in southeast Washington joined Pacific Education Institute FieldSTEM Coordinators Megan Rivard and Amy Dawley for an adventure in solar energy this February. Through a series of three synchronous Zoom sessions and asynchronous tasks via Canvas, participants...
June 2022 Salmon & Hydropower TSP Planning is in full swing!
Many schools in Washington State are part of the Salmon in the Classroom project. Through this program, students hatch salmon eggs at school, learn about salmon life cycle, habitat and learn how to test water quality. The hands-on experience of raising fish helps...
Hot and Hazy Summers Connect Climate Change to Local Experience
Educators learned why we had such an extreme heat wave this past summer, as they heard from Robin Fox, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Spokane. Chelsea Freeman teaches high school in Tonasket, an agricultural community hit especially hard by the...
OpenSciEd
Teaching students during a pandemic is challenge, teaching students who are returning to in person instruction after 2 years is an even bigger challenge. Adding a new science curriculum pilot to the mix has added another layer of complexity to teaching in the 2021-22...
Local Phenomena Mystery and Othello 6th Graders
On a chilly November afternoon, 6th Grade students walk in to in Mrs. Fought's science class with a new mystery to figure out! Mrs. Fought starts by telling a story of some mysterious bones that have been discovered in Kennewick, Washington, just a hour away from...
Regional Science Coordinators are growing and supporting OpenSciEd use amongst middle school science teachers
Between 2018 and 2021, Washington State Regional Science Coordinators and a tea of dedicated middle school science teachers engaged in field testing OpenSciEd instructional units to help inform the development of a complete Grades 6-8 open educational resource (OER)....