“A Vibe to Refuel My Hope For The Future”

“Being in a room full of people passionate about climate change? In Tulare County? It’s invigorating and the kind of vibe to refuel my hope for the future,” said SEED superstar and Burton Middle School teacher Betsy Bautista Rivera, after attending her second annual SEED Summer Institute. Rivera is one of a growing number of SEED network members who are building up a collective understanding of this region’s great natural resources and educational opportunities. First and foremost, SEED the Sequoia Environmental Education Directive,  is a network of folks excited about expanding outdoor learning in and around Tulare County. Over 100 applications from across 20 school districts revealed that this project has supporters in every corner of the county. In addition to K-12 teachers and environmental educators, it was intentional to bring together folks who are not always at the lesson planning table: teachers’ aids, office staff, community advocacy organizations, and interns from high school and college. And it was magic! “The most valuable part of the institute was the diversity of the participants. The different ages and stages in life brought synergy and enthusiasm,” said teacher Sandy Perez Neely. Isabella Cross, a high school student at Harmony Magnet Academy in Strathmore and intern with Climate Action Pathways for Schools (CAPS) said, “The icebreakers, group collaboration, and splitting up for discussions were great for getting me out of my shell and expanding my network.” This summer, this dynamic and diverse network was united by the purpose of developing lesson plans for field trips that would help students understand and address climate change in their own backyards. 

Now in year two of SRT’s B-WET (Bay Watershed Education and Training) grant from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) , SEED partners are refining a Tulare County Climate Literacy Framework, which will lay out a shared vision for the best hands-on outdoor lessons and locations to teach empowering, rigorous concepts at each grade level. This framework is also a plan to advocate for access to these field trips for all students. Lots of folks were surprised to learn that California law (AB 285, 2023) requires students to learn about climate change in grades 1–12 science classes. They were also surprised to learn how uncommon it is for elementary students to learn any science at all and how often secondary teachers skip the climate change sections of their curriculum. By diving deeper into the Next Generation Science Standards, educators and allies alike began to understand the need to take a systematic approach to addressing building block content in physical, earth, and life sciences in ways that align with what public school instructional materials and assessments already cover. Specifically, the law states that students are expected to learn about the causes and impacts of climate change as well as strategies for adaptation and mitigation. In order to teach about these concepts through engaging local phenomena and solutions, SEED members have been meeting together throughout the year to explore local sites like Terminus Dam, Allensworth, River Ranch, and SRT’s Kaweah Oaks Preserve and Dry Creek Nursery. This summer’s institute continued the adventures. 

“Everything Can Teach Us Something” 

The highlight of the institute for many folks was a trip to Sequoia National Park where participants enjoyed a private Crystal Cave tour led by Sequoia Parks Conservancy and a special climate-focused stroll through the Giant Forest. To kick it off, Johnny Sartuche welcomed everyone to the summer home of his Wuksachi Tribe and encouraged people to tune in to multiple ways of knowing and learning—from elders, from scientists, and from the plants, animals, waters, and rocks themselves. This concept resonated deeply as participants explored how both caves and the trees are natural archives, revealing information about weather, climate, fires, droughts, and ecosystem changes going back thousands of years and more. At the top of our watershed, the source of this region’s beauty and agricultural wealth, we turned off the lights and sat in total darkness in the cave. You could hear water rushing through rock channels and dripping from stalactites. The inside of this cave was a bit like the aquifers in the valley that we are trying to recharge with groundwater before they subside due to overpumping. In that spot it was easy to experience how our mountains filter our water and be struck by the contrast between these slow processes and how rapidly things are changing on the surface. As University Prep High School junior Elana Pelayo put it, “Everything can teach us something.”

Knowing that National Parks are repositories of centuries-old ecosystem data, it was important to learn about some of the challenges that park species are facing. “What really stuck with me was when the ranger was talking about the giant sequoia trees and how their ability to adapt to almost everything has led to their success. Now that climate change is affecting the bark beetle life cycle, sequoia trees aren't able to recover between seasons. So the little beetle, of all things, is a potential threat to the mighty trees! I really learned that to focus on climate literacy lesson planning we have to see the interconnectedness of everything,” said Roxana Flores, a Woodville Union School District teacher. Pelayo added, “Everything is connected. The subjects and fields—not just science—are interconnected, and, ideally, we should be incorporating standards from many areas for the best plan. But, this takes more time and education!” 

“The Ripple Effect” 

After the field trip, participants were graciously hosted at Porterville Unified School District’s office to take some needed time to think through how these key science concepts might be incorporated from grade level standards into meaningful and engaging experiences for students. Ian Devere, an intern at F3 Innovate and Deep Roots at Foodlink said, “Reflecting upon the trip on the first day was crucial for me to identify some of the key attributes to a good trip, it made me more excited and confident about planning an upcoming field trip for students.” Outdoor education works because people have a chance to learn through all of their senses and make personal, visceral, even emotional connections to a place. 

The lesson planning challenge is to keep these qualities while also addressing grade level climate change topics that teachers could preview and reinforce in their classrooms before and after the trip. The activities being planned had to emphasize the most important concepts through impactful hands-on experiences that students could use as foundations upon which to build understanding. Working together with a vibrant mix of teachers, student interns, school staff, and community-based organizations, teams drafted lesson plan activities for future field trips. For example:

• Crystal Cave is developing a 2nd grade field trip that will show students signs of slow earth processes and landforms that can leverage the awe-inspiring beauty of the site. This will help students get a sense of geological time and the “natural archives” that preserve evidence of change over time. 

• SCICON is updating its 6th grade birding activity to include global atmospheric circulation and regional climate patterns, and how these impact bird migration and population dynamics. 

• SRT and the Community Water Center are working with a couple of middle school teams to create lessons on groundwater recharge basins, multi-benefit land repurposing programs (MLRPs), and water quality. 

• F3 Innovate and environmental science teachers are creating lessons on climate-smart regenerative agriculture practices to sequester carbon, improve soil health, and inspire students to enter green career pipelines at local universities.

Fortunately, the momentum is growing and the connections needed to begin to take this work to scale are fortifying. “I learned about all of the wonderful organizations that are actively addressing and mitigating some of our local climate change concerns. Many local organizations have the desire to create bridges to help spread awareness of local innovation, scientific knowledge, and community outreach opportunities to our schools within our county,” said Visalia Unified teacher Stephanie Castillo. “I think that there needs to be a multi-year initiative to engage all students in Tulare County K-12 in outdoor educational field trips to help with social emotional learning and climate literacy. All students must have the opportunity to visit the national parks, experience the seasons, and expand their funds of knowledge to become climate literate and have positive mental health outcomes,” said Neely. “The Summer Institute is the rock in the pond, and we will begin to see the ripple effect.”

A full year of SEED Gathering and partner events is in the works where participants will continue to flesh out the Climate Literacy Framework, pilot and publish lesson plans, and continue weaving a network of landowners, educators, and students working toward the common cause of a sustainable Southern San Joaquin Valley. Stay tuned for details!