Educator Toolbox

CLEAN is here to support all teachers with climate and energy education, from the first-year teacher to the nature center field trip leader, to the veteran teacher wishing to stay up-to-date. Explore the many ways that CLEAN can support your teaching!

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Unit Development Guides for CLEAN Resources

Create CLEAN & NGSS Units Guide

Create your own climate and energy units using CLEAN resources. This guide provides an overview, planning template and tools for building NGSS-aligned instructional units, and classroom-ready examples.

Understanding Global Change Instructional Guide

Understanding Global Change is a suite of online and interactive resources from UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology that support teaching and learning about climate change and the Earth as a system. Use the UGC tools to construct your own explanatory models about global change phenomena.

Earth Systems Investigations

The Earth Systems Investigations (ESIs) are suggested learning paths that integrate resources from the CLEAN Collection and other trusted science and data content sites into a three-dimensional learning sequence that is engaging. Two example investigations are provided: (1) Carbon Cycle and (2) Ecosystems.

Professional Development & Teaching Support

Managing Climate Change Controversy in the Classroom

The goal of teaching climate change doesn't have to include steering clear of any possible controversy. Instead, consider how your classroom can offer a safe, trusting environment for all students to explore the topic. This page aims to help educators navigate the controversial aspects of climate change, and offers concrete suggestions for how to foster an open dialog with students, parents, or co-workers.

Managing Climate Change Controversy in the Classroom in Spanish / Navegando la Controversia del Cambio Climático en el Salón

Mental health: How to teach climate change towards empowerment

In response to the climate crisis, many around the world, especially young people, have reported feeling overwhelmed, powerless, sad, and anxious. How do we support youth in stepping up rather than shutting down? Check out these pages to learn about strategies and resources that can support students as they navigate these complex emotions and move toward empowerment.

National Climate Assessment Teaching Resources

Learn about the National Climate Assessment (NCA), which offers a wealth of actionable science about the causes, effects, risks and possible responses to human-caused climate change. NOAA, the NCAnet Education Affinity Group, and members of the CLEAN Network have developed a series of guides for educators that focus on the regional chapters of the Assessment Report, helping to unpack the key messages of each region and point to related, high-quality online resources.

Virtual Teaching

Are you looking for ways to engage kids in fun, age-appropriate science, but not sure how to wade through the thousands of resources available on the internet? Check out these pages to find ways to search CLEAN and suggestions of resources that teach kids about Climate Change through age-appropriate videos, interactive visualizations, and hands-on science!

CLEAN Educator Newsflash

The CLEAN Educator Newsflash is a topical newsletter that links selected resources from the CLEAN collection with current climate and energy events in the news. The series features a variety of top-rated CLEAN resources—from activities, labs, and demonstrations to data sets, visualizations and videos—to support educators in connecting climate and energy to our everyday lives.

Webinars

Join upcoming webinars to learn more about CLEAN or view the archive of recorded webinars highlighting the collection and how it can be used to teach about climate and energy topics.

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