About Us
We envision a world where everyone feels empowered to take action in solving climate change. To create this future, climate action begins in the classroom.
OUR PARTNERSHIP STORY
This partnership emerged from shared values and beliefs our organizations hold about the powerful and unmatched role that educators play in bending the curve. Our aim was not to create another hub that simply houses resources, but instead to focus on capacity building for educators around key paradigm shifts needed to teach in ways that activate student agency while amplifying the efforts of incredible partners already leading the way. We’re thrilled to be on this learning journey with you and your students as we aim to catalyze climate action through education together.
About ECCLPs
The Environmental and Climate Change Literacy Projects (ECCLPs, pronounced “eclipse”) is a multisystem initiative organized by the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems in partnership with key community partners to advance pre-kindergarten through 12th grade (PK–12) climate and environmental literacy, justice, and action. The next generation, today’s students, need to be prepared to achieve a more just and sustainable planet.
ECCLPs creates opportunities that will prepare educators to support students through deep learning experiences centered on climate and environmental justice literacy and culturally relevant community action throughout California. Education is the catalyst to advance climate action, and we can accomplish more in genuine partnership with educators, teachers, researchers, and community partners. Our mission is to build educator and school capacity, advance rigorous research, and engage communities to cultivate informed and proactive environmental stewards and leaders.
About SubjectToClimate
We envision a future where every child learns about climate change and becomes a steward of our planet. To reach this vision, we are on a mission to empower all educators to easily and effectively teach about climate change, justice, and action. We know that teachers want to teach about climate change, and we also know that climate change education can have sizable impacts on climate action. Despite the desire to teach about it and its proven effectiveness, a survey by the North American Association for Environmental Education found that only 39% of educators reported they were teaching about climate change. In order to support educators in teaching about climate change, SubjectToClimate’s co-founders created a free platform with teacher-designed lesson plans, curated resources, and professional development opportunities to enable all K-12 educators to easily integrate climate change into what they already teach. Since launching in 2021, SubjectToClimate has reached nearly 500,000 educators.
Why This is a Powerful Collaboration
Education is Key to Addressing Climate Change
1/8 of teachers in the nation
earn their credential through CA systems (California Commission on Teacher Credentialing)
74% of CA high school students
receive their climate change information from social media, rife with dis/misinformation (ECCLPs Climate Change Report)
80% of people in the U.S.
feel that Climate Change should be taught in schools (Yale Climate Opinion Map)
While one study from the National Center for Science Education found that 75 percent of public school science teachers do cover climate change, another 2016 survey of 1,500 middle and high school teachers found that they only devoted one or two hours to climate change during the entire academic year.
Call to Action
The ECCLPs initiative is the first to bring together every public university in CA (23 California State Universities and 10 Universities of California) with a vast network of community-based partners to advance PK-12 climate and environmental literacy, justice, and action.
