PSESD
Puget Sound ESD works with school district science leaders and regional community-based organizations (CBOs) to bring climate science concepts through NGSS-aligned, phenomena-based teaching to students across the region. Our greatest area of leverage is the science leaders and teacher leaders in our local school districts who can engage greater numbers of colleagues in racially just, solutions-oriented climate science learning and teaching. Our partnerships with ClimeTime grantees and other CBOs in the region result in a variety of learning opportunities to meet the needs of district science reform and teacher professional growth plans. Some of these opportunities are described below.
Teacher Professional Development
Elementary ClimeTime: How Does a Seed Become a Tree? A Carbon Story
In this workshop series, science teacher leaders provide an exploration of the role of trees in climate change using supportive teaching strategies that spark student thinking and support student talk.
Climate Science for Middle School
Many school districts adopted middle science instructional materials early in the NGSS implementation process. These materials often come from national providers. This year, we will work with middle school teacher leaders to explore phenomena-based climate science content and facilitation, and to use new ideas to enhance current instructional materials with a localized focus.
Climate Science for High School Chemistry
OpenSciEd is an open educational resource (OER) being developed by science education researchers and field test teachers. It supports NGSS phenomena-based teaching. In the series, we engage chemistry teachers in a deep study of the carbon cycle using a soon to be released OSE chemistry unit.
Community Based Organization Partnerships
The Puget Sound region is blessed by a large number of community-based organizations dedicated to improving science learning outcomes for students. We are fortunate to partner with ClimeTime grantees including EarthGen, Inlandwood, Pacific Education Institute and the Institute for Systems Biology. We also partner with non-grantees including Sustainability Ambassadors, Arts Impact and the Educators of Color Leadership Collaborative.
Leadership Support
Puget Sound Science Leadership Collaborative
The Science Leadership Collaborative is a partnership between regional, school district science leaders, Puget Sound ESD, the Puget Sound LASER Alliance. In this collaborative, district science leaders come together monthly to work together around common interests (e.g. instructional practices, cultural competence, curriculum-assessment resources). Climate justice and climate proviso resources are shared at monthly meetings.
Upcoming Classes
Partners & Collaborators
- Arts Impact
- EarthGen
- Institute for Systems Biology
- Islandwood
- Pacific Education Institute
- Puget Sound LASER Alliance
Success Stories from Puget Sound ESD
OpenSciEd High School Summer Institute inspires and motivates teachers
“We need to stop thinking, ‘Is this student good enough for my science class?’ and start asking, ‘Is my science class good enough to engage all students?’” This was the question posed by Jamie Yoos, a chemistry teacher and OpenSciEd facilitator from Bellingham,...
OpenSciEd Elementary Field Test Launch Summer 2023
The OpenSciEd Elementary Field Test launched this August on the beautiful Washington State University, Vancouver campus. Over seventy elementary teachers from across the state participated in this three-day project launch learning about the high-quality OpenSciEd...
IslandWood Working Group brings local connections to national science units!
On August 7th, science educators from the Puget Sound region gathered for a two-day Localizing Amplify Science Teacher Institute at IslandWood’s Bainbridge Island campus. The educators were excited to collaborate on curriculum adaptations towards incorporating student...