Create a Climate-Conscious Classroom

Initiate positive change toward a climate-conscious classroom that supports students in every facet.

Invite climate experts to co-teach a class through the Climate Teaching Connector

Apply for the Climate Education Grants for funding up to $5,000 to incorporate climate change content and teaching approaches to your courses

FACULTY

Be a sponsor for a Climate Justice Research Collaborative project

  • Adapt your teaching style and course structure to more climate-friendly practices 
  • Assess if long-distance and high emission field trips are necessary for the student’s learning using UBC Library’s Air Travel Decision Tree
  • Teacher’s Guide, Local Lessons for a Cool Climate
  • Climate Ready BC: Preparing Together for Educators guide
  • Climate Action Toolkit for the Higher Education Sector (inspired several actions on the Take Action pages)

Decolonize and diversify curricula through just and inclusive means by paying close attention to sources, research funding, faculty diversity, etc.

  • Create processes that involve students, especially those from IBPOC, 2SLGBTQ+ backgrounds and with disabilities or from low-income communities  
  • Amplify and centre IBPOC speakers, creators, scholars, and initiatives 
  • Review citations, syllabi, and reading lists and consider what paradigms and whose voices are being prioritized 
  • Seek honoraria funds to fairly compensate IBPOC voices (consult the UBC Indigenous Finance Guidelines to better support gift-giving and compensation in reciprocal, respectful, relationship-based collaborations between Indigenous partners and UBC) 
  • Use respectful and accurate terminology by consulting the Indigenous Peoples: Language Guidelines 
  • Recognize that while this is an emergency now, many communities have already been dealing with apocalyptic conditions for hundreds of years

Support student wellbeing in the time of climate crisis

  • Consider and acknowledge the impacts of climate anxiety and grief 
  • Accommodate students coping with direct and indirect climate impacts by being flexible with deadlines 
  • Strive to connect students with resources and facilitate a supportive and understanding environment, especially during/after traumatic events or difficult classroom topics

Highlight work that is being done on campus and facilitate connections to existing initiatives and student communities

Tie student projects and learning into existing Campus Operational Sustainability / Climate Action Initiatives