1. States of Matter – For our curriculum project, we decided to teach second-grade students the different states of matter and how they are affected in the heating and cooling process. While teaching this unit we wanted to connect it back to the student’s community and how their environment may be affected by climate change. For example, teaching the students about the Connecticut River and the flooding that is occurring due to global warming. Overall, we want the students to walk away with an understanding of the states of matter and how their community can be connected to it. By Lillie Cumming and Lucy Dorion
  2. Sustainable Design – This unit curriculum is aimed at high school upperclassmen and aims to discuss engineering and sustainability within a global context with the intention of building a more sustainable and equitable world. Students will draw connections between environmental science and engineering in order to understand how the two fields interact with and are integral to one another. Students will then discuss inequities surrounding climate change, why these inequities exist, and how to mitigate them through sustainable design. To wrap up the unit, students will create proposal projects that have sustainable, equitable, and engineering components in order to demonstrate their overall understanding of the unit. This project will allow students to creatively make connections between different fields of science and will help students understand how the concepts and ideas that they are learning about in science can be used with intention in the real world to construct a more equitable and sustainable world. By Kaia Henderson
  3. Climate Change – This unit is intended for middle-aged children at a Hartford public school. The curriculum provides an introduction to climate change, emphasizing students’ capacity to make change in their communities. Students who are disadvantaged and in traditionally segregated neighborhoods are disproportionately affected by climate change problems. Due to educational inequity, often the same students who are most affected aren’t given the proper tools and knowledge to understand and fight inequality. This unit aims to combat that disparity through accessible teaching and an empowerment-centered curriculum. By Celia Baer & Riley Reynolds