Thank you for visiting us at the Green Schools National Conference! We want to help you educate for a sustainable future, and have tailored this page to help, below you find quick resources to get you started!
The EfS Benchmarks
What is EfS? Start by reading the EfS Benchmarks to understand more about what it means to Education for Sustainability. This 70 page account is authored by, and represents the current and best thinking of, forty-two scholars and practitioners of the field of Education for Sustainability (EfS). The Benchmarks include the Big Ideas, Thinking Skills, Applied Knowledge, Dispositions, Actions, and Community Connections that define Education for Sustainability. They embody essential elements that administrators, curriculum professionals, faculty, board and community members may adopt: to align goals; to self-assess performance; and to intentionally and effectively educate for the future we want by design. In addition, the Benchmarks embody the consensus that our field needs to demonstrate the impact of EfS and to catalyze wide spread implementation.
Curriculum Design Studio
The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education prepares pre-K-12 school systems to educate for a sustainable future by inspiring educators and engaging students through meaningful content and learner-centered instruction.
In this 5-day curriculum design studio, educators, administrators, and program designers learn how to design and embed EfS into curricula, assessments, and performance tasks without the need for additional class time.
You get access to expertise, resources, and tools to reorient and enrich curricula. Through working sessions, learning circles, coaching, peer review, and optional mini-sessions, you create and develop units and protocols that educate for sustainability.
Tuition is just $495 for 5 days!
Our Services
Our work with schools, school systems and Higher Education institutions all revolves around the curriculum, instruction, and assessment aspects of Education for Sustainability, as well as the strategic planning, organizational, and leadership development that is required.
Each of our short term services can run in length from a half-day (Awareness, Skill Development) to five days (Design and Leadership) depending on the depth of knowledge and skills desired. Our long term services can run in length from one year to ten years. The length of each engagement depends on the readiness, the needs and the aspirations of each individual client. Some places have been educating for sustainability for a long time and others are only just beginning. Whatever your situation, we can tailor a program or service to meet your needs.
Resource List
Jaimie, Linden, Ruth, Heidi, Angela, Anne (2021 Design Studio)
Spirit Island Work cooperatively representing nature to fight human development
Save the Whales Game-should be able to get cheaper used: The Classic Cooperative Game by Animal Town! Players save eight whales faced with extinction from oil spills, catcher ships, etc. Players must work together cooperatively in this realistic, educational board game
Teaching Zach to Think How to validate info on the Internet
The American Dream and Economic Myth Article by Betty Sue Flowers
GIS Story Mapping “Create inspiring, immersive stories by combining text, interactive maps, and other multimedia content. Publish and share your story with your organization or everyone around the world.”
The Extraordinaire’s Design Studio Pro Great for creative problem solving and empathy. “The Extraordinaires® are over the top characters with extraordinary needs. It’s your job to design the inventions, gadgets, buildings, clothing and vehicles they require to fit their worlds.”
The Council of All Beings “The Council of All Beings is a communal ritual in which participants step aside from their human identity and speak on behalf of another life-form. A simple structure for spontaneous expression, it aims to heighten awareness of our interdependence in the living body of Earth, and to strengthen our commitment to defend it. The ritual serves to help us acknowledge and give voice to the suffering of our world. It also serves, in equal measure, to help us experience the beauty and power of our interconnectedness with all life.”
Draw Down Learn “Drawdown Learn™ is a broad initiative to encourage education and learning about climate solutions based on Project Drawdown’s research, analysis, and insights. Through our programs and partnerships, we engage people of all ages in climate solutions and create new ways of teaching and learning about how the world can reach Drawdown.”
The Evolution of Trust This 30 minute online game uses Game Theory to show the benefits of cooperation as a way to create change and get what one wants. Based off Robert Axelrod's groundbreaking 1984 book, The Evolution of Cooperation
Greater Good Science Center/Magazine Greater Good magazine turns scientific research into stories, tips, and tools for a happier life and a more compassionate society
The Science of Happiness Free Online Course The Science of Happiness is our flagship online course that explores the roots of a happy and meaningful life. Students engage with some of the most provocative and practical lessons from this science, discovering how cutting-edge research can be applied to their own lives
Helping Students Identify Fake News with the Five C's of Critical Consuming Great short video that provides 5 Cs you can post and return to again and again as an anchor lesson
Systems Thinking: A little Film About a Big Idea This 12 minute video is worth every minute because it breaks down systems thinking into four main components
BOOK: Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning Drawing on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines, the authors offer concrete techniques for becoming more productive learners
99 Percent Podcast 99% Invisible episode 189 - The Landlord’s Game (History of Monopoly)
SFMOMA Social Justice Posters by Students San Francisco Museum of Modern Art -- examples of student Posters, scroll to the bottom for the lesson link and other teacher resources
Eco literacy Article New Lessons from Leonardo by Fritjof Capra - food for thought regarding the synthesis of art and science
Swale A Floating Food Forest in NYC born in 2016 by artist Mary Mattingly. Swale is an experimental and co-educational edible landscape built on a hopper barge that utilizes marine common law in order to circumvent local public land laws
Playing for Change Videos - A project where musical artists from around the world record songs together
Kohala Center-School Garden Curriculum Map EfS Standards aligned with School Gardening
National Geographic National Geographic Geoinquiry protocol
YPAR Hub | YPAR Hub (berkeley.edu) YPAR (Youth-Led Participatory Action Research site (about interview and other research skills)