K12 Student and Educator Events | Columbia Climate School

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Climate LIVE K12

Climate LIVE K12 is an online video series that features experts from across the Columbia Climate School presenting relevant climate and sustainability content for K12 students, educators, and a generalist audience. The LIVE 1-hour sessions bring our interdisciplinary research across our centers into classrooms.

Each session has an appropriate targeted grade range based on the topic, and the sessions vary between topical lectures, demos, and skills-based training. In addition to the videos, we offer additional educational resources related to the content covered in these online sessions whenever possible.

If you would like to submit any questions before the event, please send them to Laurel Zaima-Sheehy ([email protected]).

All sessions are FREE, but pre-registration is REQUIRED for each event. RSVP for Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 sessions below.

Climate LIVE K12- Fall 2022 and Spring 2023

Session: Student Activism in the Climate Movement
Youth action in the climate movement is essential as their voices hold particular power. Young people have emerged as major players in climate planning and decision making due to their creativity, optimism, and fresh solution-based ideas. In this session, we will be hearing from youth activist that are leaders on the ground in their communities, providing climate adaptation, mitigation, and resilience strategies to create a more climate just and sustainable future.
Presenter: Youth Climate Activists:

Suler Lu,
Ajani Stella,
Nadine Ismail
Audience: Grades 9-12, Educators, the Public
Date: Wednesday, November 9th, 2022
4-5pm ET
Register: Recording

Session: Climate Justice in New York City
What lessons have we learned from ten years of recovery from Hurricane Sandy? Urban planners and designers had to think creatively to address the challenges and opportunities of local climate change adaptation. In particular, climate justice drives planners to re-thinking the way cities are built to promote equity.
Presenter: Thaddeus Pawlowski

Managing Director, Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes & Research Scholar and Adjunct Associate Professor, Urban Design and Urban Planning
Audience: Grades 6-12, Educators, the Public
Date: Wednesday, December 14th, 2022
4-5pm ET
Register: Recording

Session: Generating Applications to Gain Acceptance
How do you best represent yourself in an application? How do you show the reviewer that you are the perfect candidate for the position? In this session, we will be hearing directly from students that have successfully navigated applications for internships, summer programs, undergraduate school, and graduate school. Our panel consists of students of all stages of their academic career- high school, undergrad, and graduate school. We will even hear a reviewer's perspective about what they look for when selecting candidates. Our panelists will be sharing tips, tricks, and lessons that they have learned from undergoing the process themselves.
Presenter: Panel:

Madison Milla, High School Student, Nyack High School

Tenzin Sherpa, Undergraduate Student, Hamilton College

Nicklaus Smith, Graduate Student, Masters in Climate and Society, Columbia Climate School

Cassie Xu, Application Reviewer, Columbia Climate School Non-Degree Programs
Audience: Grades 8-12, Undergraduate and Graduate Students, Educators, the Public
Date: Wednesday, January 11th, 2023
4-5pm ET
Register: Recording

Session: Paying Attention to Critical Climate Messages from the Polar Regions
The polar regions are the site of profound climate change and regularly 'message' us with observable change, yet it is easy to dismiss the signals if we are not paying attention. In this session, we will explore some of the range of signals we are measuring in both the Arctic and Antarctic, what they mean for the polar regions, how they connect to those of us who are beyond the poles.
Presenter: Margie Turrin

Director of Educational Field Programs, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Audience: Grades 8-12, Educators, the Public
Date: Wednesday, February 8th, 2023
4-5pm ET
Register: Recording

Session: The Climate Symphony: How Climate Variability Impacts Global Rainfall Patterns
Climate variability plays an important role in the earth system and impacts rainfall differently from year to year and from decade to decade. This presentation will focus on different modes of climate variability and their impacts on rainfall, the difference between climate variability and climate change, and what happens when different modes of climate variability impact each other. The goal is to think of the climate system as an orchestra playing a symphony!
Presenter: Laurel DiSera

PhD Student, International Research Institute for Climate and Society
Audience: Grades 8-12, Undergraduate Students, Educators, the Public
Date: Wednesday, March 8th, 2023
4-5pm ET
Register: Recording

Session: Everything You Wanted to Know About Climate Mobility But Were Afraid to Ask
Climate change is slowly reshaping settlement patterns as humans respond to increasing variability and extremes. People may move voluntarily, they may be forced or encouraged to move through incentives, or they may be displaced and either stay in their new location or return. We will explore these topics as they related to climate mobility in both high and low income settings throughout the world, including the implications for climate justice.
Presenter: Alex de Sherbinin

Senior Research Scientist and Associate Director for Science Applications, Center for International Earth Science Information Network
Audience: Grades 9-12, Undergraduate Students, Educators, the Public
Date: Wednesday, April 12th, 2023
4-5pm ET
Register: RSVP

Session: Natural Ideas for Unnatural Problems: Ecosystem-Based Disaster Risk Reduction
For many, a changing climate means increasing frequency and intensity of all types of natural disaster, including floods, droughts, fires, and windstorms. New infrastructure can be costly to build and maintain, and old infrastructure crumbles under the stress of a modern climate. In this session, we will discuss natural strategies to adapt to disaster that have become 'un'natural, and what other services these novel strategies can provide to our communities.
Presenter: Hannah Dancy

Project Coordinator, National Center for Disaster Preparedness
Audience: Grades 8-12, Undergraduate Students, Educators, the Public
Date: Wednesday, May 10th, 2023
4-5pm ET
Register: RSVP

Session: Harnessing the Power of Communities to Fight Flooding and Protect our Waterways
Climate-driven flooding is worsening due to sea level rise and rapidly intensifying storms, with many of the most serious impacts being felt in disadvantaged communities already reeling from decades of underinvestment in water quality and ecosystem health. To protect our most vulnerable communities, government planners must find new ways to respect and center the wisdom that only those communities possess. Can we build the just and equitable partnerships we'll need to survive climate change?
Presenter: Paul Gallay

Senior Staff Associate and Resilient Coastal Communities Project Leader, Center for Sustainable Urban Development
Audience: Grades 9-12, Undergraduate Students, Educators, the Public
Date: Wednesday June 14th, 2023
4-5pm ET
Register: RSVP

All the sessions are recorded and posted on the Columbia Climate School's YouTube channel.

Climate LIVE K12 Session Recordings

Educator Training

The Columbia Climate School’s educator training events are designed to provide K-12 educators with cutting-edge tools and content to address climate change, the environment, and sustainability in their classrooms through our world-renowned scientists. We hope to engage students through science learning and teaching that goes beyond textbooks and worksheets.

All K-12 educators (both pre- and in-service), administrators, and district leaders working in formal and informal learning environments, regardless of subject area expertise, are encouraged to attend. There are no prerequisites for these events. All events are currently virtual and participants will need access to a computer in order to join our live-streamed events.

For our Educator Trainings, participants will receive:

Access to the live event and session recording
Presentation slides from speakers
A certificate of participation from the Columbia Climate School
Resources and additional reading materials
In some cases, related lessons and activities that can be directly used in the classroom

Fall 2022 Educator Training Offerings:

The Columbia Climate School will be offering a series of educator opportunities around the theme of microplastics.

Educator Training: Microplastics, Mega Impact

Microplastics Educator Training

Plastics became a popular material for a wide range of products because they are easy to make from petrochemicals, inexpensive, and resistant to water, chemicals, temperature, and light. There were so many uses for plastics that plastic production growth increased exponentially. Plastic does not biodegrade naturally in our environment, which means that all of the plastic that has ever been created still exists in some form. Instead of breaking down in the environment, it breaks up into tiny pieces of plastic called microplastics.

Be able to define microplastics (primary vs secondary sources & type of plastics)
Understand potential environmental risks of microplastics
Explain the impacts of microplastics on the marine ecosystem and on humans
Empowerment of youth to make personal to community change to address the plastic problem through both the reduction of plastic usage and clean up efforts
Introduce student to various emerging plastic solutions beyond linear municipality recycling

Dr. Beizhan Yan received his Ph.D. in 2004 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, NY and currently, he is a Lamont Associate Research Professor at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) of Columbia University. In 2007, he joined LDEO, and since then, he has established an Environmental Organic Geochemistry Lab from scratch with the ability to extract, isolate, and identify organic contaminants and biomarkers from environmental and biological samples. He is leading collaborative studies in measuring the microplastic and nanoplastics in NYC waterways and air and characterizing their exposures, and linking exposures to various adverse health outcomes, including neurodegeneration diseases.

Laurel Zaima-Sheehy is the Program Manager of Non-Degree Education and Outreach Programs at the Columbia Climate School. She coordinates the Non-Degree Education and Outreach Programs, including professional learning workshops, pre-college place-based programs, and K12 and educator offerings. As an educator, Laurel works on education initiatives that communicate topics of sustainability, climate change, sea level rise, and climate action to the general public, K12 and undergraduate students, and formal and informal educators. Laurel has a BS in Marine Science and Biology from the University of Miami and a MS in Sustainability Science from Columbia University.

Date & Time: November 16th, 2022, 3:30-5:00pm ET

Format: Virtual via Zoom

Grades: 3rd- 8th

Past Educator Training Recordings:

Climate Change in the Classroom- July 2020

The Science of COVID-19 - December 2020

Earth 2 Class

Earth 2 Class (E2C) is a unique STEM opportunity for K-12 teachers, students, the general public, and geoscientists.

The mission of E2C is:

To provide teachers and students access to cutting-edge research that can be used to enhance personal understanding of science
To develop learning activities directly linked to real-world problems
To provide scientists with an effective pathway to disseminate their discoveries more broadly

Under the coordination of Dr. Michael Passow, a science educator at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of the Columbia Climate School, E2C is a collaboration among Earth science researchers, classroom teachers, and technology integration specialists from Colégio Bandeirantes, São Paulo, Brasil.

Earth 2 Class Saturday Workshops for Educators

Earth 2 Class flagship offering is Saturday Workshops for Educators held either virtually via zoom, in-person at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Campus in Palisades New York, or hybrid.

Since 1998, E2C has provided more than 225 workshops, featuring over 100 scientists.

To participate in an educator workshop, reach out to Dr. Michael Passow

Workshop Schedule

Past Workshop Recordings

Earth Science Curriculum & Teaching Tips

Earth Science Educational Resources

Public Events

Microplastic Madness Film Screening and Panel Discussion

November 1st, 2022 from 5-7pm ET, doors open at 4:00pm ET

The Forum at Columbia University, 601 W 125^th Street, New York, NY 10027

The Columbia Climate School is hosting a screening of the film 'Microplastic Madness' followed by a panel discussion led by scientists, educators, and students.

'Microplastic Madness' Film: Panel Discussion

'Microplastic Madness' Film & Panel Discussion

The film is an optimistic take on the local and global plastic pollution crisis as told through a refreshing urban youth point of view with an inspiring take action message. These fifth graders spent 2 years investigating plastic pollution by taking on the roles of community scientists, leaders, and advocates. The production also takes a deep dive into the root causes of plastic pollution, bridging the connection between plastics, climate change, and environmental justice before turning their focus back to school. With stop-motion animation, heartfelt kid commentary, and interviews of experts and renowned scientists, this important and uplifting narrative conveys an urgent message in user-friendly terms with a take action message to spark youth-led plastic free action in schools everywhere. The film has been accepted to 44 film festivals and received 8 awards.

Debby Lee Cohen - Co-Director/Producer of Microplastic Madness and Executive Director, Cafeteria Culture

Sandra Goldmark - Director of Campus Sustainability and Climate Action, Barnard College and Senior Assistant Dean of Interdisciplinary Engagement, Columbia Climate School

Joaquim Goes - Lamont Research Professor, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia Climate School

Rhonda Keyser - Education Director, Cafeteria Culture

Rebeca Sabnam - Youth Advocate, Cafeteria Culture, and Sophomore, Columbia University

Moderator: Laurel Zaima-Sheehy, Program Manager, Non-Degree Education and Outreach Programs, Columbia Climate School.

The event is free, but registration is required.

This is a hybrid event that is open to the general public.

For those joining us live, doors open at 4pm ET. Please note that all guests to campus are required to comply with Columbia University's Health and Safety Policy for visitors, which includes mandatory primary COVID-19 vaccination for all eligible individuals. Guests must be prepared to provide proof of vaccination if asked.

For those who wish to join us remotely, we will send you a link to watch the movie when the event starts at 5:00pm ET on November 1. The link will be available to you for 28 hours ending at November 2nd 9:00pm ET. We will also share a recording of the panel discussion with registered participants after the event is over.

If you have any questions about this opportunity, please contact us at [email protected]

Climate LIVE K12

Climate LIVE K12- Fall 2022 and Spring 2023

Educator Training

Fall 2022 Educator Training Offerings:

Microplastics Educator Training

Background

Learning Objectives

Speakers

Event Details

Past Educator Training Recordings:

Earth 2 Class

Earth 2 Class Saturday Workshops for Educators

Public Events

Microplastic Madness Film Screening and Panel Discussion

'Microplastic Madness' Film & Panel Discussion

'Microplastic Madness'

Panelists

Event Details

Questions

Contact Us