The OEA Environmental Justice Caucus (EJC) received a grant from National Geographic to help groups of teachers make online learning local, active, and relevant for students. The Oakland Teachers Advancing Climate Action (OTACA) collaborative gives us the opportunity to build on this work by supporting teachers and honoring their work as they support students to:
Research and map an Oakland-specific, climate relevant phenomenon or question
Make recommendations related to their findings and take action
This Year OTACA teachers designed and tested student-action projects related to environmental justice.
Ethan Hessel - 11th Grade Anatomy & Physiology:
My students planed and carried out an investigation about air quality around Fremont High School using air quality monitors. By working in groups, students created a research question, recorded data, produced a lab report, and will give presentations about their research. Check out the project here!
Katherine Seven - Grade 5:
Students will be able to orient themselves in terms of distance to natural landmarks and points of interest on campus, in the city of Oakland, and the greater Bay Area with respect to their home location of Joaquin Miller Elementary School in Oakland, California. Check out the project here!
Erin Valenzuela - Grade 2:
I worked with a group of second graders on our green team to create a board game about pollination. We used a map of the school and they used their prior knowledge about pollination to create a board game called "Super Pollinator Blast!" where the object is to create a well pollinated garden. Check out the project here!
Helene Moore -
Grade 1:
How school learning gardens can create pro-active learning experiences for students in city schools. JM first grade students spent this year gardening and learning how their activities could fight climate change. Check out the project here!
A 9th grade team collaborated to lead their students through cross-disciplinary project, studying disease and social outcomes accross all four core subjects.
Ethnic Studies - Abrham Alem - We analyzed the way infectious disease have been told- dominate narrative and in groups, students researched and created a counter narrative to infectious disease. At the end students presented their counter narratives to the rest of the class.
English - Marina Claveria - We explored the relationship between disease spread, social factors, and media impact of these intersections.
Algebra - Sarah Mings - We used exponential function to explore the spread of disease.
Biology - Saumitra Kelkar - My students learned how to conceptualize disease outbreaks in terms of simple mathematical relationships, and played a game that required them to manipulate individual variables to achieve desired outcomes in an epidemic.
Check out this integrated project here!
Cindy Guillikson - School Librarian, working w/ Grades 4 & 5:
Pairs of 4th and 5th graders researched a Native American tribe and learned about an environmental or land use issue that the people are working on.
Students created a pin for a shared Google MyMaps map and annotated the pin with brief details about the tribe and their environmental or land use issue. Check out the project here!
Barbara Brock - Grades 4 & 5:
In my project students were making connections between mapping and school gardens. We examined out direct community (classroom) and our school community to see how we could enhance our space with gardens. Check out the project here!
Ayo Akatugba - 11th Grade Physics:
My students investigated Green residential buildings in Oakland and created a map of Green residential buildings in Oakland using ARCGIS. They also analyzed their findings and compared their results with other factors affecting Oakland such as redlining, asthma rate, income level, habitability, etc, and reported their project via story maps. Click here to see an example project!
Rachel Abramson and Susannah McIntosh - 10th grade newcomer Biology:
Students engaged in a scavenger hunt to find native plants in Joaquin Miller Park. Check out what they learned here!
Engineering teacher Elizabeth Woodward and 5th grade teacher Lisa Shields collaborated to get their students engaged in brainstorming ways that we can make our community more resilient through adaptation. Together, they created several units that integrated English Language Arts, science, and engineering addressing climate change. The students wrote an essay, play, built structures and habitats that adapted to or mitigated climate change and wrote and reflected on that process. Check out their work here!
Saumitra Kelkar - 9th Grade Biology:
My students and I set up a system for wildlife monitoring on campus, in preparation for measuring the outcomes of a proposed native habitat restoration project. Check out the project here!
Eric Robertson - Grades 4 and 5:
We looked at Cycles of Waste - where it comes from and where it goes and initiated an anti-litter and clean-up campaign at our school. Check out the project here!
We met at the Chabot Space and Science Center to learn about using maps to teach about climate change and environmental justice.
Here is a link to all the materials from that day!
We brainstormed how get our students to think critically (and with critical lenses) about the data they collect through their projects. Check out the slides here and use our questions as a brainstorming guide!
Click the tiles below for zoom links and links to forms!
If you prefer a more linear journey, here's a link to our Calendar.
If you didn't fill out a W-9, here's a link. Please mail to:
Community Resources for Science
1611 San Pablo Avenue, Suite 10B
Berkeley, CA 94702
If you have any questions, you can always reach out to us at ejcoakland@gmail.com.