Tackling Climate Change through Environmental Justice High School

EcoRise

This multi-lesson resource set for high school is focused on environmental justice and social science. It asks students to consider inequality and justice in the context of their own lives and the environment through a series of both hands-on and research-focused activities. This unit supports student understanding of the multiple, complex issues and perspectives of environmental justice in the United States. In part one, students complete a group activity under the pressures of environmental discrimination and then evaluate their success. The second and third part uses short videos to explain a real life example of overcoming environmental discrimination to encourage students to reflect on the complexity of these issues. In the final part, students debate a solution to an issue using assigned roles in a town hall platform.

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Notes from our reviewers

The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials.

Keep in mind that using role-play scenarios for learning can invite stereotyping. Discuss how to avoid this possibility before engaging in the limited resources or town hall meeting suggested for this lesson set. Note that this lesson set contains multiple variations on classroom set-up which necessitates good classroom management. Try out the materials you choose for the tower building exercise in lesson one before using them for the lesson to make sure they're effective for the activity. This resource focuses on traditional environmental justice categories of race and class. There is an expansive literature on the gendered dimensions of environmental justice and an emergent literature on queer dimensions of environmental justice and the intersection of disability and environmental justice. Teachers could expand discussion of intersectional environmental justice by adding these dimensions to these lessons. This lesson was designed for four 90 minute sessions, we recommend breaking this lesson down into smaller parts for smaller class periods.
The concepts presented are vital to conducting responsible science. Students are also involved in inquiry and observation throughout the lesson, which are important skills to cultivate. There are multiple opportunities that the lessons could connect to scientific resources. For example: In lesson one, the activity focused on building a tower could connect to engineering. In lesson two, the resources students focus on for research could include peer-reviewed articles or other formal scientific publications, which could help students consider bias, the process of review, and systematic racism. Also in lesson two, the mapping activity could be linked to better data through a tool like EJscreen from the EPA. Finally, in the town hall activity in lesson four, the policy activity isn't linked to a study of actual policies and an overview of how they were created and the scenarios don't include scientists. The inclusion of each one of these elements could make for stronger lessons and increase the scientific focus of this unit. Students will learn terms like redlining, NIMBY, equity, equality, and intersectionality. This resource, and in particular the town hall scenarios, does an excellent job at explaining not only the scientific risks and realities of living near industries, but also the complicated social dynamics and perspectives involved in reaching a solution. Passed initial science review - expert science review pending.
This lesson has multiple activities that can engage different types of learning styles, including discussion, reflection, role plays and scenarios, team work, timelines, art, and a poster walk. The resource uses a mix of group activities and discussions, videos, and self reflection that will appeal to a wide variety of audiences. A student and teacher guide is available, and a rubric is provided to help educators evaluate participation. Each part builds on the information that students learned in the last, and new vocabulary is thoughtfully used throughout the lessons. Great care is also taken to inform and prepare both the educator and the students of the potential vulnerabilities that this content can expose in a classroom setting. Resources are offered to help teachers support students in emotional distress or who may have family members who work for polluting industries. These lessons provide engaging activities that serve as an introduction to environmental justice. Depending on the age and maturity of students, the concepts may require some scaffolding, background information, and discussion (e.g. cap and trade, carbon offsets in the first video). Consequently, the times listed for activities may not be accurate. Allow space to delve into these topics at the students' speed. Teachers know their classrooms best and will want to consider how to thoughtfully guide students through these lessons and provide the necessary support to address the concepts presented. The sources and perspectives offered in this lesson could be seen as biased for a specific viewpoint, especially in highly polarized areas of the US. This is discussed somewhat in the cultural adaptation notes, but needs to be taken into account for each lesson. It may be helpful for students to investigate additional perspectives to those offered here to complicate the narrative by including industry along with activism. In order to do the research suggested in this lesson set, students will need a background in identifying viable sources. The EJ webquest activity includes sources that may not be well-respected, such as wikipedia. Consider an activity to help students understand how funding, perspective, and intended audience can greatly impact source content. It may also be helpful to discuss what goals various media outlets and publishers may have. The "creating your own map with Google Maps" activity does not provide adequate instructions. Educators may need to look up how to create these maps.
This is a dense lesson set and requires prep time for each lesson. While there is a considerable amount of information and support for teachers provided within the lessons, spend time with the lessons beforehand and consider rewriting them in your own style. All activities have a blended learning option to assist educators with an online format. All materials are available in dropbox for download. The EJ map suggested seems to have broken links and doesn't work well in some browsers. Consider using EJscreen from the EPA instead- [link https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen]. The EJ heroes in Spanish file was missing when accessed by a reviewer, but all posters can be found here [link https://www.ecorise.org/our-work/curriculum/intro-to-ej/#posters].