A CU Education Partnership Is Inspiring the Next Generation of Climate Advocates
On a fall day, elementary education majors inMelissa Braaten’s class are busy — busy as beavers, one might say — building mock beaver dams out of water and natural materials in small bins. During this exercise, budding teachers role-play teaching young learners in their future classrooms, asking questions and analyzing beavers’ role in ecosystems.
The climate science lesson is modeled after one that Braaten’s community partners teach at in Boulder County as part of (C4CA). In this particular lesson, student scientists (lovingly referred to as “beaver believers”) study real beaver habitats in the local waterway, where the dams create wetlands habitats for other species and maintain lush surroundings important for the increasingly drier state of Colorado.
Launched by retired fifth-grade teacherTiffany Boyd (MEdu’92), C4CA brings together retired and practicing teachers, community members, local climate change experts and youth to work together toward climate solutions.
In C4CA, kindergarten through high school students learn about environmental justice issues and play an active role in climate solutions — from sharing flood-mitigation ideas with city council to working with open space officials to address fire risks.
Braaten, an associate professor of STEM education and associate dean for undergraduate and teacher education inCU Boulder’s School of Education, is a research partner for C4CA and documents how science teaching is powerful when it’s relevant to students’ lives and civic action.
With Braaten as the connector, C4CA educators visit her elementary education classes to share real-world examples and create C4CA’s own “ecosystem” of current and future teachers working together to support young people’s scientific inquiry and leadership in climate solutions.
“A central ingredient for C4CA’s success is that it takes everyone working together to make a change,” Braaten said. “Teachers credit its partner mentorship with inspiring and sustaining their efforts to help children be civic actors working for environmental justice — not only as future adults, but in the immediate present as vital members of our community.”
