Food Fight!

Districts are scrambling to address climate change performance expectations in the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS). On the flipside, such questions offer vital opportunities to ignite change and give students agency regarding climate literacy and resiliency in the high school classroom. A cohort of science teachers from Denver Public Schools and a team from the University of Colorado Boulder's (CU) Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) education and outreach program and the School of Education, plus graduate student content experts, collaborated on a two-year climate and resiliency professional development project (Climate and Resiliency Education 2018) funded by the CU Office for Outreach and Engagement. The project goal is to build teacher capacity in climate education and support student-led climate action in schools. Using the phenomena-based storyline approach (Next Generation Science Storylines 2018), the cohort co-designed a series of NGSS-aligned secondary units that localize climate concepts, making them relevant to students' lives. Educators piloted the place- and project-based units, which underwent revisions based on classroom feedback, and education and science experts reviewed the modules for pedagogical and scientific rigor. This article is about a science teacher who shifted her climate education approach from teaching her students about climate change to having her students take the lead in developing and implementing climate change solutions at their school.