Yukon University’s Outreach Climatologist supports educators in the territory by developing and delivering curriculum-focused climate change education.The Outreach Climatologist is devoted to developing and delivering learning modules that integrate into Yukon’s existing curriculum to support teachers in facilitating a clear understanding of the central issues surrounding climate change knowledge, adaptation, and mitigation. Learning modules are defined as any resource, material, or training that can benefit/be used by educators and students across Yukon to increase/improve climate change knowledge such as: lesson plans, reading materials, resources, activities, guest lectures, audiovisual materials, and workshops for educators based on needs and capacity. Material may focus on climate change science, impacts, solutions, policies, communication, health, and resilience and include Indigenous Knowledge of climate change, reconciliation, and local context.
The Outreach Climatologist works within the Climate Change Research team at the YukonU Reseach Centre and is a 4-year funded project beginning in spring 2023.
For the first year of the project, the Outreach Climatologist will work with a small group of educators in Whitehorse in order to pilot content, ideas, workshops, and projects. Work in other Yukon communities is planned for the following years of the project.
Project Lead, Dr. Ellorie McKnight, Outreach Climatologist, Climate Change Research, YukonU Research Centre
Alison Perrin, Senior Research Professional, Climate Change Research, YukonU Research Centre
Contrary to popular belief, climate change education is not just about understanding what anthropogenic (i.e. human-caused) climate change is and how it works, and it's not just relevant to high school science classes. Climate change education is also about understanding socio-political-economic systems and worldviews, how decisions in society are made and who makes them, where power comes from and how it influences society, and how we as a society can move forward in better ways. If we think about it this way, climate change education is relevant to every subject matter and every grade, touching on topics such as food and water, housing, energy, communication, cooperation, health, culture, governance and community.
However, many educators find it challenging to talk and teach about climate change their classrooms: not only is it hard to explain clearly and succinctly, it's inherently an emotionally challenging topic because its existential and heavy, and it can be difficult to know what solutions to focus on.
In this infographic, you'll find some best practices for teaching about climate change, a review of responses to climate change and climate action to focus on with students, and a refresher on the basics of climate change science with a Yukon focus. This resource is intended to make it easier for educators to integrate climate change education into any subject matter or grade, with the goal of leaving students feeling aware, informed, and equipped for what is needed to move towards a more just, resilient, and sustainable future. While the climate change crisis we are experiencing is human-caused, humans also hold the solutions.
The content of the infographic was developed through knowledge & expertise gained by YukonU’s Outreach Climatologist's (Dr. Ellorie McKnight) experience leading and supporting climate change education, as well as key points from leading experts and research in this field. The visuals/graphics were produced by Ester Bordet from Yukon Graphic Recording. Please go ahead and use this resource as you wish, and share with whomever. This project was funded by the Climate Change Action and Awareness Fund (Environment and Climate Change Canada).
