IDOE Adds Climate Change Education Framework

Thursday, January 7, 2021 05:18 PM EDT Updated: Friday, January 8, 2021 09:29 AM EDT
By Mary Roberts, Writer/Reporter
IDOE Adds Climate Change Education Framework

The Indiana Department of Education, in partnership with the Purdue University Climate Change Research Center and Purdue’s College of Science, has announced the state’s new Climate Change Education Framework. The IDOE says the framework offers instructional resources for educators to include climate change information in their curriculum.

The IDOE says the framework originated out of a need expressed by Indiana educators to include more focused climate change teaching within current classroom instruction.

“Providing educators access to high-quality and evidence-based climate change facts and resources is critical to creating more academic opportunities for our students to become informed citizens, grounded in science,” said Indiana State Superintendent Dr. Jennifer McCormick. “I am grateful for our partnership with Purdue and for the involvement of educators from across our state. Their dedication, support, and work will have an impact on generations of students to come.”

Collaborating in the fall of 2020, IDOE and Purdue began curating resources to assist educators with teaching climate change while intersecting with existing Indiana Academic Standards for science.

“People have heard a lot of misinformation about climate change over the years, so it’s important for teachers to be able to find trusted, scientifically accurate materials,” said PCCRC Director Jeff Dukes. “We were excited to partner with IDOE to help teachers find helpful resources based on solid science.”

To guide the process, the IDOE says the team pulled from the published work of Purdue professors Dan Shepardson and Andrew Hirsch that outlines five critical climate change topics that provide a strong scientific foundation for continued learning.

During a two-day virtual workshop, the IDOE and Purdue worked with Indiana educators to identify relevant state academic standards and associated learning resources aligned with the five climate change concepts to create a framework from which educators around the state could utilize.