Environmental Science

The disproportionate impacts of societal challenges (e.g., climate change, air and water pollution) on minoritized groups expose systemic injustices and compels STEM educators to reframe the role of STEM education in society. In this article, we describe traditional approaches, contemporary approaches, and our proposed future approach in science and STEM education with a focus on equity and justice.

The Exploring Coasts and Coastal Change in Hawai‘i unit supports middle school haumana (students) in developing multi-perspective understanding and personal stances about coastal change in their community. The unit was collaboratively developed by a partnership among educators bringing together Indigenous and Western ways of knowing and learning. Through lessons that take place over three weeks, haumana (students) undertake a place-based learning experience addressing physical, biological, and social facets of their changing coasts and engage the perspectives of ‘ohana (family), community members, and scientists.

While citizen science and other participatory approaches to science are increasingly used in schools to promote student science learning, rarely are these students supported to collect, analyze, and share their data with meaningful outside audiences. In this study, we used a Design-Based Research approach to iteratively develop and examine an elementary school-focused community and citizen science (CCS) program that facilitated students’ collecting, analyzing, and sharing forest health data with their forest manager community partners in an area of California, USA facing continual risk of catastrophic wildfires.

Environmental education is essential for protecting and restoring natural water sources. Integrating education with positive environmental experiences can instill values and stewardship in the public, encouraging proactive steps to preserve and enhance water resources. Elementary teachers can incorporate real-world water-related environmental issues into their classrooms, promoting critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Place-based education, which involves experiential learning in local settings, effectively builds connections between students and their communities. Authentic water-focused climate science learning should anchor in local phenomena, fostering student inquiry and validating student voices.

Water scarcity poses a significant global challenge, which is often overlooked, particularly in regions with abundant water resources. This article outlines a curriculum designed for middle school students (grades 6–8) that addresses the dynamics of water scarcity and sustainability through five detailed lessons centered around the water cycle.

Despite a growing effort to integrate students’ civic action projects into science and engineering curricula that address climate change and environmental justice, there are few frameworks that guide teachers and students to make well-informed decisions and actions towards a more just and sustainable future. This article presents a tool, Civic Action Matrix, that characterizes different types of students’ civic action projects. The tool attends to two dimensions of activities that capture important aspects of learning–the development of student agency and understanding the complexity of climate and environmental issues.

This collection of 10 investigations offers collaborative, NGSS-aligned plant science lessons for middle and high school that include guides for students, teachers, and mentors.

Our research study examines the community-based partnership PD model and its impact on school teachers’ self-efficacy and their success in engaging students in the NGSS science practices through citizen science projects.

This Citizen Science Guide provides specific guidance on identifying relevant citizen science projects that fits an educators' curricular and instructional needs.