8 Ways To Teach Climate Change In Almost Any Classroom

NPR/Ipsos conducted a national poll recently and found that more than 8 in 10 teachers — and a similar majority of parents — support teaching kids about climate change.

But in reality, it's not always happening: Fewer than half of K-12 teachers told us that they talk about climate change with their children or students. Again, parents were about the same.

The top reason that teachers gave in our poll for not covering climate change? "It's not related to the subjects I teach," 65% said.

Yet at the same time, we also heard from teachers and education organizations who are introducing the topic in subjects from social studies to math to English language arts, and at every grade level, from preschool on up.

That raises the question: Where does climate change belong in the curriculum, anyway?

The "reality of human-caused climate change" is mentioned in at least 36 state standards, according to an analysis done for NPR Ed by Glenn Branch, the deputy director at the National Center for Science Education. But it typically appears only briefly — and most likely just in earth science classes in middle and high school. And, Branch says, that doesn't even mean that every student in those states learns about it: Only two states require students to take earth or environmental science classes to graduate from high school.

Joseph Henderson teaches in the environmental studies department at Paul Smith's College in upstate New York. He studies how climate change is taught in schools and believes it needs to be taught across many subjects.