Broadening Participation in Undergraduate Climate Education
SENCER West Coast Regional Meeting, Sept. 14–15, 2023
Sponsored by The Hixon Center for Climate and the Environment and the Office of Community and Civic Engagement
The world is on track for at least a 2℃ global average temperature increase by 2100 based on international agreements, pledges, and targets—and even optimistic scenarios of current pledges result in an estimated 1.8C of warming, all despite the 2015 Paris agreement goal of keeping the global average temperature increase below 1.5℃. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released their sixth Assessment Report describing the impacts of warming beyond 1.5℃, which will touch every aspect of our lives. And yet K-12 education is only just beginning to adopt climate literacy into its standard curricula, and the inclusion of climate change in higher education, through core curricula, is lagging.
Despite these shortcomings, there is a growing effort to expand climate education in higher education and to incorporate climate beyond the earth sciences. Faculty understand that, regardless of field, our graduates will inherit a personal and professional landscape that is fundamentally changed from the world today. Their education should prepare them for this new world.
This one-day conference will convene climate experts, teacher-scholars from other disciplines and community partners to discuss the future of climate education for undergraduates. The goal of the conference is to expand the number of faculty involved in climate education and for those already involved to deepen their understanding of and appreciation for the strengths that multiple perspectives bring to addressing the challenges of climate. A theme throughout the conference will be broadening participation in climate education on our campuses and in our communities.
Conference Outcomes:
- Participants will learn how their disciplinary expertise can be integrated with other disciplines to improve and expand climate education for undergraduate audiences.
- Those attending the conference will be empowered to engage/expand/improve climate education at their home institution and will have the opportunity to workshop ideas for lessons and modules that could be implemented in their own classrooms.
- Participants will critically reflect on which voices/types of knowledge are being included and excluded from the conversation about climate change at their campus.
- Participants will explore how working together with communities and practitioners can enhance climate education in mutually beneficial partnerships.
- Attendees will make connections and network with fellow educators from diverse backgrounds who are working on climate education.
At-a-Glance Schedule
Location: Harvey Mudd College and online
| 4–5 p.m. | Check-in and welcome reception (Sprague patio adjacent to Shan 1430) |
| 5–6 p.m. | Keynote #1: “Building Climate Resilience through Education,” V. Ramanathan, emeritus professor, University of California at San Diego, and founding chair, Bending the Curve: Climate Education for All |
| 8–9 a.m. | Coffee and breakfast |
| 9:15–10:15 a.m. | Keynote #2: Crystal Chissell, executive director, Global Council for Science and the Environment |
| 10:30–Noon | Session A – Bridging Disciplines, oral presentations and panel Q/A (Shan 1430) |
| 10:30–Noon | Session B – Climate Futures Activity, led by Krista K. Hiser (Skycube, Shan 3460) |
| Noon–12:45 p.m. | Lunch (catered, buffet style, Platt Campus Center, Green Room) |
| 12:45–2:15 p.m. | Poster presentations with coffee/dessert, two cohorts: Cohort A from 12:45-1:30 pm and Cohort B from 1:30pm-2:15pm (Platt Campus Center, Living Room) |
| 1–2 p.m. | Meet and Greet Session, led by Eliza Reilly and Davida Smyth (virtual) |
| 2:30–4 p.m. | Session C – Climate in any course you teach, led by Mark Stemen (Shan 3481) |
| 2:30–4 p.m. | Session D – Institutional Change, oral presentations and panel Q/A (Shan 1430) |
| 4–4:30 p.m. | Closing reception (Sprague patio adjacent to Shan 1430) |
Conference Keynote Speakers and Facilitators
V. Ram Ramanathan
University of California at San Diego and Cornell University
V. Ram Ramanathan is emeritus professor at the University of California at San Diego and Cornell University Climate Solutions Scholar at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University. He is the founding chair of University of California’s Bending the Curve: Climate Education For All, a multi-disciplinary undergraduate curriculum on climate change solutions taught at many campuses around the world. Ramanathan discovered the greenhouse effect of chlorofluorocarbons and other heat trapping pollutant gases. His findings on super pollutants (methane, HFCs, ozone and black carbon) have led to several successful climate mitigation actions worldwide, including the formation of Climate and Clean Air Coalition by the United Nations to mitigate these pollutants. He was the founding chair of University of California’s Bending the Curve: Climate solutions education protocol and taught at many campuses around the world. He served as the science advisor for Pope Francis’ Holy See delegation to the UN’s 2015 Paris Climate Conference. He was listed as Foreign Policy Magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2014 , named 2013 Champion of Earth by the United Nations and was awarded the 2021 Blue Planet Prize. He is an elected member to the US National Academy of Sciences, the Pontifical Academy of Science (council member), The American Philosophical Society and the Royal Swedish Academy of Science.
Crystal Chissell
Executive Director, Global Council for Science and the Environment
Crystal Chissell is the executive director of the Global Council for Science and the Environment (GCSE). Prior to joining GCSE, Chissell served as vice president of operations for two climate solutions nonprofits, Project Drawdown and Project Regeneration and also served as senior director of partnerships for Project Drawdown. In those roles she has worked with government, business and academic organizations to identify, analyze and implement a diverse portfolio of effective strategies for reversing climate change from local to global scales. Her state and local government experience includes serving as chief solicitor of the Baltimore City Law Department and assistant attorney general for the Maryland Environmental Service. Chissell earned a B.A. from Howard University, an M.S. in environmental science from Johns Hopkins University, an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco and a J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law.
Mark Stemen
California State University, Chico
Mark Stemen is a professor of environmental studies at California State University, Chico, where he teaches courses in sustainability and civic engagement. Known to his students as “Dr. Mark,” he is well-recognized on the campus for his work with students and the community on issues of sustainability and climate change. He and his students recently assisted in preparing a climate vulnerability assessment for the city of Chico and Butte County that will allow them to integrate future climate scenarios into their respective general plans. In 2008, Stemen was named “Sustainability Champion” at the seventh annual California Higher Education Sustainability Conference, and he is a co-founder (with his students) of the This Way to Sustainability Conference at CSU, Chico. In spring 2022, Stemen facilitated the inaugural CSU Faculty Learning Community in Teaching Climate Change and Resilience (FLC in TCCR). With participation from 62 faculty from six CSU campuses representing over 30 disciplines, the FLC ultimately redesigned 75 classes to offer greater engagement in climate change. The FLC was awarded the Campus Sustainability Achievement Award by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education and was highlighted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, as part of their Future Trends in Higher Education for 2023. Stemen will host the FLC in TCCR again during spring 2024.
Krista Hiser
Senior Lead and Advisor for Sustainability Education
Krista is the Senior Lead and Advisor for advancing Sustainability Education and the Key Competencies Framework. In her role she works with partners at Arizona State University, and GCSE’s Sustainability Education Community of Practice, as well as stakeholders across higher education. She has been Senior Fellow for Community Colleges at GCSE since 2018. Formerly the director of the University of Hawaiʻi System Center for Sustainability Across the Curriculum, she is on professional leave from Kapiʻolani Community College, where she is a Professor of Composition & Rhetoric with an emphasis on sustainability curriculum, climate change education, and community resilience. She received her doctoral degree in Educational Administration from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, and holds a master’s degree in English Composition from San Francisco State University and a bachelor’s in English from the University of Iowa.
How to Participate
We are eager to hear from anyone working to include climate in undergraduate curricular and co-curricular education including those with climate expertise, teacher-scholars from other disciplines, staff and administrators, and community partners. We welcome presentations from all stages of curriculum development, including established efforts and recent experiments in curriculum reform. We are eager to hear about what has worked and what has not, acknowledging that our successes and failures both offer important insights as we work to broaden participation in climate education.
We are no longer accepting conference proposals but we encourage you to attend using the registration information below.
Registration
We welcome participation without any presentation. All attendees, including presenters, will need to register here.
Registration is $25 for in-person attendance only. For attendees for whom this fee represents a barrier to their participation, please email climateeducation-L@g.hmc.edu to request a code that waives the registration fee (a code is needed to use this registration option). The organizers wish this conference to be accessible to all who would like to attend and would benefit.
Hotel Information
We have made arrangements with the DoubleTree by Hilton in Claremont. The hotel address is 555 W Foothill Blvd, Claremont, CA 91711.
The conference room rate is $159/night plus taxes and fees for Sept 13–15, 2023.
Please reach out to the organizers at climateeducation-l@g.hmc.edu to take advantage of the discounted rate.
Hotel will provide shuttle service to and from HMC and the DoubleTree. The schedule is as follows:
- From DoubleTree to HMC (morning service only):
- Friday, September 15, 7:45 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.
- From HMC to DoubleTree (afternoon service only):
- Friday, September 15, 2 p.m., 4:45 p.m. and 5:15 p.m.
Attendee Information
Arrival and parking
Our campus address is 301 Platt Blvd, Claremont, CA. Here is our campus map.
Our conference will begin with a reception and check in Thursday Sept 14 at 4p in the patio adjacent to room 1430 of the Shanahan Center for Teaching and Learning. Attendees arriving on Friday morning will be able to check in during breakfast at the same location. If you anticipate arriving at a different time, please let us know so we can make arrangements for you.
Registrants for in-person participation will receive a conference email which includes a parking pass and parking map.
HMC has a small number of EV chargers on campus. To access them, please contact our staff at parking@hmc.edu for instructions. There is also EV charging outside of HMC. This site has a map and availability of additional chargers.
Special Event
Session B: Climate Futures Activity led by Krista K. Hiser
We are pleased to offer a participatory activity through facilitator Krista Hiser, Senior Lead and Advisor for Sustainability Education.
This transformative activity creates conditions for participants to reflect on their roles and responsibilities to themselves, each other, and our places, in light of accelerating ecological breakdown and social tension. Participants will have a facilitated interaction with a physical timeline interpreting potential climate future scenarios, with opportunity for open, honest reflection with peers. This activity draws from the work of Sandy Wiggins and futurist Duane Elgin. Limit 15 participants.
Registrants will receive a sign up form following registration. If you would like sign up but did not yet receive a form, please contact us.
Workshop your syllabus
If you plan to attend Session C: Climate in Any Course You Teach led by Professor Mark Stemen, Chico State University, please come with a printed syllabus for an existing course, and if appropriate, one or more assignment prompts you are considering revising. This session will give attendees an opportunity to make progress toward inclusion of climate topics in their existing courses, whether this is the first attempt at a change, or a chance to revise, extend, and improve previous efforts. We ask that attendees review and become familiar with Project Drawdown, Solutions Journalism, All We Can Save and Existential Toolkit prior to the workshop. The first half will include discussion in small groups, arranged by discipline, and a chance to review provided resources. After the break, attendees will be able to workshop ideas with their small groups and create action plans for next steps.
Virtual attendees
Events that can be attended virtually are designated in the schedule and include keynote lectures on Thursday evening and Friday morning, panel discussions on Friday morning and Friday afternoon, and the virtual-only meet-and-greet Friday afternoon described below.
Links for virtual participation will be shared closer to the conference date.
Virtual-only event
1p-2p Friday September 15: Meet & Greet Session led by Eliza J. Reilly and Davida Smyth
If you are joining us as a virtual attendee, we invite you to share space with other virtual attendees during this meet and greet session. The purpose of this session is to build community by getting to know each other, by learning/sharing about SENCER and NCSCE, by talking/debriefing about conference content and or by just having an informal time in community. Join for the full time or part of the time.
Access to digital posters
Some of our poster presenters may be sharing their posters digitally. We will email a link to all of our virtual attendees for access during the meeting.
Presenter Instructions
Poster presenters
If you are presenting a poster, you are welcome to mount your poster either before the Friday morning session or during lunch. Posters can be no wider than 47” and no longer than 66”.
In order to allow our virtual participants to share in the poster session, we invite you to share your poster digitally through the link in your conference email. This is entirely optional. We will give attendees access to the folder for the duration of the conference and then the folder will be hidden.
Oral presenters
If you are presenting a talk, we ask that you provide your slides in either PDF, Powerpoint, Keynote, or a Google Slides file in advance of the meeting so that we can have all the talks in a given session cued up.
Oral presenters have been given access to a folder by email. As long as our support staff has access to your file on the morning of Thursday Sept 14, we will have enough time to open the presentations and ensure smooth transitions between talks.
Remote presenters
If you are presenting a live talk, we ask that you provide your slides in either PDF, Powerpoint, Keynote, or a Google Slides file in advance of the meeting so that we can have all the talks in a given session cued up. The link to our shared folder was provided to you by email.
As long as our support staff has access to your file on the morning of Thursday Sept 14, we will have enough time to open the presentations and ensure smooth transitions between talks.
If you are giving a pre-recorded presentation, please provide the video in .mp4 format in the folder provided by email to you. We have staff here at HMC to help if a conversion is necessary and you need support.
Our staff would like to have the videos on hand by the week of September 5 to give them time to check them for formatting and any issues that may need to be addressed.
Contact Details
For more information, please reach out to the organizers at climateeducation-l@g.hmc.edu. Conference organizers are Lelia Hawkins, director of the Hixon Center for Climate and the Environment; Karl Haushalter, chair, Department of Chemistry; and Gabriela Gamiz, director of civic and community engagement.
Meet the Climate Education Conference Co-Sponsors
Harvey Mudd College’s Hixon Center for Climate and the Environment
The Hixon Center for Climate and the Environment is the home for all campus efforts related to climate, sustainability, and environmental studies, including course development, faculty-led scholarship, and special events.
To address the multifaceted challenges presented by our changing climate, the center is actively recruiting faculty for joint appointments across all departments. This will ensure our program is reflective of the interdisciplinary nature of the climate crisis. Regardless of a student’s aligned discipline, they will find an avenue to apply their passion and make an impact on society.
Read and learn more about the Hixon Center here.
Harvey Mudd College’s Office of Civic and Community Engagement
The Office of Civic and Community Engagement (OCCE) works collectively with our campus and the broader community to educate and empower one another to be informed and engaged members of a community that makes meaningful contributions to society.
OCCE encourages the campus community to develop mutually meaningful and reciprocally enriching relationships with communities both locally and globally. OCCE achieves this by supporting students, faculty and staff with advice and guidance; community partnership communication; logistical and transportation resources; and funding for projects and (co)-curricular (re)design.
Read and learn more about OCCE here.
National Center for Science & Civic Engagement’s (NCSCE’s) Science Education for New Civic Engagement and Responsibilities (SENCER)
NCSCE is a national organization that supports a community of educators throughout the STEM learning ecosystem, from K-12 and undergraduate education, to “free-choice” and informal education. Through professional development programs they support cross-sector collaboration, curriculum and course design, assessment, research, and mentoring. They help educators in and outside the classroom make connections between the content they teach and real world issues of civic importance. Their goal is to empower learners by showing them that STEM education is civic education; and what we learn today can help solve some of the biggest problems of tomorrow. Read and learn more about NCSCE here.
SENCER is NCSCE’s signature program. SENCER courses and programs strengthen student learning and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by connecting course topics to issues of critical local, national, and global importance.
Students and faculty report that the SENCER approach makes science more real, accessible, “useful,” and civically important. For history, resources, the SENCER Course Model Series, and lots more go to SENCER.net.