Story – Science – Solutions: A new middle school science curriculum that promotes climate-friendly behaviors

Over the last five years, Green Ninja has been developing educational media to help motivate student interest and engagement around climate science and solutions. The adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) offers a unique opportunity where schools are changing both what they teach in a science class and how they teach. Inspired by the new emphasis in NGSS on climate change, human impact and engineering design, Green Ninja developed a technology focused, integrative, and yearlong science curriculum (6^th, 7^th and 8^th grade) focused broadly around solutions to environmental problems. The use of technology supports the development of skills valuable for students, while also offering real-time metrics to help measure both student learning and environmental impact. During the presentation, we will describe the design philosophy around our middle school curriculum and share data from a series of classes that have piloted the curriculum. We will also share our perspectives on the potential for formal education to be leveraged as a viable climate mitigation strategy.