Course Overview

Welcome to the Teaching about Climate Justice eeCourse! This course is designed to prepare you to teach about climate justice topics with your middle or high school students. Thank you for taking the time to engage in this course experience, deepen your understanding of climate justice, confront and explore your own feelings about teaching climate justice topics, gather new resources you could use in your classroom, and create high-quality, locally relevant lesson plans that you can incorporate into your current curriculum.  

Objectives

By the end of this course, you will be able to: 

• Understand how equity and inequity, intersectionality and climate change are related.

• Identify intersectional climate leaders and organizations in your community or state. 

• Gain a deeper understanding of climate justice and Identify climate justice issues and solutions in your community.

• Explore the principles for teaching climate justice and feel better be prepared to make the case for teaching climate justice.

• Explore strategies to address climate anxiety.

• Explore and reflect on how your identity and your students’ identities and how identity  impacts the teaching and learning of climate justice.

• Investigate civic engagement and how students can take action to give them hope in the face of the climate crisis.

• Create a lesson plan on climate justice that moves students through a series of hands-on activities in a clear and appropriate learning progression.

Expectations

As a student of this course, it is expected that you:

• Have some background knowledge of and comfortability engaging with or teaching climate change topics in the classroom .

• If this is not the case, please check out CAEE's Climate Literacy eeCourse.

• Commit the time required to complete all readings, assignments, and assessments.

• Complete Modules 1-4 and their associated assignments, as well as submit the final course evaluation.  You will have 8 weeks to complete the course.

Completing Tasks and Assignments

For each Module, you will record responses to prompts and complete tasks in a Course Journal. At the end of each module, you will submit your Course Journal with the relevant sections completed. 

The Course Journal and other documents will be provided in the form of Google Docs.  You can either download as a Word document or "Make a Copy" under the File menu to edit it as your own. Assignments can be submitted as Google Docs by using the link-sharing feature. Assignments can also be submitted by attaching Word documents. If you have questions or would prefer another option, please contact Lisa Eadens at lisaeadens@caee.org.

Grading 

• Assignments must be completed with a score of 2 as indicated on the scoring guide provided.
• If you complete all of the course assignments with a grade of 2 or more you will receive a Certificate of Completion for 15-hours of professional development.

Important Dates

This course runs for 8 weeks, from January 26 – March 20, 2026. Although you can complete the course at your own pace, below is a recommended schedule for completing each module:

• Module 1 – Complete by February 9
• Module 2 – Complete by February 23
• Module 3 – Complete by March 9
• Module 4 – Complete by March 20

Additionally, you will be required to attend at least one 1-hour online discussion with fellow eeCourse participants. A Doodle Poll will be sent on the first week to schedule a time that works best for course participants.

Meet Your Course Moderator

Your course moderator is Lisa Eadens. She will review and score your assignments, offer feedback and facilitate the online discussion. Read more about Lisa below!

Lisa grew up in a small mountain town on Colorado’s Western Slope where she developed a love for outdoor recreation and a respect for our natural world. She earned a B.S. in Biology from Davidson College and an M.S. in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation from the University of Florida, where she also completed a Certificate in Environmental Education and Communications. 

Lisa has worked in environmental education for over 20 years, starting as an intern at the National Wildlife Federation and advancing to leadership roles, including directing a nonprofit watershed partnership and opening a multi-million-dollar environmental learning center. Lisa joined the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education in 2013 and currently serves as Program Coordinator where she coordinates CAEE's professional development trainings along with the Careers in Natural Resources Initiative. Lisa currently lives in Golden with her husband, three kids, two cats and dog. In her free time, you will find her hiking, skiing, cheering on the Broncos or relaxing with friends and family.

Get to Know the Course

This course was supported by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 8 Environmental Education Grants.   It has not been formally reviewed by EPA. The views expressed in this document are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Agency.