Earth Month: How Schools are on the Front Lines of Addressing Climate Change
By Christine Byrd
April 10, 2026
April 10, 2026
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Schools may not be top-of-mind when considering climate change, but they’re often ground zero when environmental disasters hit communities. The 2025 Southern California wildfires destroyed schools and displaced 750,000 students, immediately impacting their wellbeing and learning outcomes. Later that year, schools in Texas Hill Country served as emergency hubs and temporary housing for displaced families in the aftermath of once-in-a-century floods.
Increasingly, teachers are finding themselves on the front lines, cultivating students’ skills to cope with and address our changing climate. “We can’t rely only on science and engineering research to find a technology fix for climate change. We need to, at the same time, work with youth and teachers to make sense of what’s going on and to respond with hopeful action,” says Asli Sezen-Barrie, the Stacey Nicholas Endowed Chair of Climate and Environmental Education at the UC Irvine School of Education. “Because, ultimately, the next generation will be the ones leading and making decisions on these issues.” |
Asli Sezen-Barrie
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At UC Irvine, Sezen-Barrie leads the Environmental and Climate Change Projects (ECCLPs), a landmark partnership between the California State University and University of California systems that aims to ensure that every high school student in the state develops literacy in environmental and climate change issues – largely through educating California’s teachers.
Equipping teachers
Bailey McCraner chose UCI School of Education to pursue her Ph.D. in part due to its strong commitment to environmental and climate change education. A California native, McCraner brought her lifelong love of the ocean and outdoors to her students as a teacher and science specialist. Now, as a first-year graduate student, she’s working with ECCLPs to help other California educators incorporate climate change into their science curriculum.
“What I love about education as an approach to climate change is that it starts at the grassroots level,” says McCraner. “As young as four or five years old, children can begin developing a connection to nature and environmental concepts through things they see in their own community every day. With their growing understanding, they start to realize they can be a part of the solution.”
Introducing young students to climate concepts is no longer optional in California. Assembly Bill 285, adopted in 2023, requires climate change education be incorporated into the science curriculum beginning in first grade and continuing through senior year of high school. New Jersey, Connecticut, New York and Illinois are among a handful of other states that have adopted similar requirements for K-12 students. McCraner is working closely with California educators – from elementary to AP environmental science teachers – to gauge their awareness of the new requirements, how they are to implement them, and how ECCLPs can support them in the future.
“As a former teacher, I love helping other teachers. I know the struggle when you want to teach something, but you don’t know where to look for resources and lessons,” says McCraner. “ECCLPs is building that bridge for teachers, with the long-term goal to create a paradigm shift in climate change education by providing them with impactful resources to incorporate into their classrooms.”
Equipping teachers
Bailey McCraner chose UCI School of Education to pursue her Ph.D. in part due to its strong commitment to environmental and climate change education. A California native, McCraner brought her lifelong love of the ocean and outdoors to her students as a teacher and science specialist. Now, as a first-year graduate student, she’s working with ECCLPs to help other California educators incorporate climate change into their science curriculum.
“What I love about education as an approach to climate change is that it starts at the grassroots level,” says McCraner. “As young as four or five years old, children can begin developing a connection to nature and environmental concepts through things they see in their own community every day. With their growing understanding, they start to realize they can be a part of the solution.”
Introducing young students to climate concepts is no longer optional in California. Assembly Bill 285, adopted in 2023, requires climate change education be incorporated into the science curriculum beginning in first grade and continuing through senior year of high school. New Jersey, Connecticut, New York and Illinois are among a handful of other states that have adopted similar requirements for K-12 students. McCraner is working closely with California educators – from elementary to AP environmental science teachers – to gauge their awareness of the new requirements, how they are to implement them, and how ECCLPs can support them in the future.
“As a former teacher, I love helping other teachers. I know the struggle when you want to teach something, but you don’t know where to look for resources and lessons,” says McCraner. “ECCLPs is building that bridge for teachers, with the long-term goal to create a paradigm shift in climate change education by providing them with impactful resources to incorporate into their classrooms.”
Bailey McCraner
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Collaborating across campus
Interest in climate change extends to all levels of education, and can be seen in students across UC Irvine, as well. A new undergraduate course offered this spring, Education 180/Informatics 190, Education for Sustainable Futures quickly reached capacity, and Sezen-Barrie notes that many graduate students incorporate sustainability and climate change into their research, even if indirectly. Fourth-year international graduate student Aakriti Bisht is a prime example. As Earth Month kicked off, Bisht collaborated with Sezen-Barrie to host a sustainable fashion event for graduate students and faculty. Participants brought their own clothing to the event, where they learned basic sewing skills to repair and renew items, or used them to create artworks. |
Bisht is from the Indian Himalayan region, a geographically sensitive landscape, and became actively engaged in regional environmental advocacy through local organizations as an undergraduate, using street theater and artistic practices to foster collectivism and community engagement. Building on these experiences, her graduate research at UC Irvine examines how creative, community-based learning practices can support learners in environmental science and engineering education.
“My dissertation focuses on designing learning practices that strengthen student’s relationships with the environment within their community contexts,” Bisht says. “We use creative artistic practices to help students speculate environmental futures, enabling them to understand existing systems while also imagining more just and equitable ways of being.”
Educating future decision makers
A climate crisis – and the passion of college students – are what led Sezen-Barrie to focus on education as a means to address climate change. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast, impacting millions of people. As Sezen-Barrie students at Towson University traveled to the Jersey Shore to help clean up the devastated areas, they impressed upon her how important they believed their role as teachers could be to helping young generations cope with climate change.
Sezen-Barrie went on to join the faculty at the University of Maine, where she worked with teachers across New England and mid-Atlantic to develop science curriculum that incorporates climate change. In 2021, she was named rotating program director of the National Science Foundation’s Division for Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings, in which she contributed to federal science education initiatives on issues including wildfires and ocean engagement. When an endowed chair was created at UC Irvine in 2023 specifically to support climate and environmental change literacy for California educators, Sezen-Barrie saw a unique opportunity to make an impact.
“I saw interdisciplinary connections across UC Irvine, along with authentic opportunities to collaborate with educators, students and researchers,” Sezen-Barrie says. “My role gives me a chance to work toward solving big concerns for our community and for society.”
Sezen-Barrie has two books coming out this year about climate change education. The first, The Palgrave Handbook of Climate Change Research in Transdisciplinary Education (Springer, 2026), which she co-edited, offers theories and practices for teachers to incorporate climate change into their pedagogical practices. The second, a co-authored volume, Making Climate Justice Count (Harvard Education Press, 2026), offers insights on how students can connect their personal stories to climate data for deeper understanding. Both aim to support educators as they strive to address climate change in their classrooms.
“Children and youth are experiencing worse climate conditions than previous generations, so we need to teach them to know how to live with it, how to respond to it, how to think through decisions they’ll face in the future.” says Sezen-Barrie. “The field of education is now responsible for supporting children and youth through ongoing climate change.”
“My dissertation focuses on designing learning practices that strengthen student’s relationships with the environment within their community contexts,” Bisht says. “We use creative artistic practices to help students speculate environmental futures, enabling them to understand existing systems while also imagining more just and equitable ways of being.”
Educating future decision makers
A climate crisis – and the passion of college students – are what led Sezen-Barrie to focus on education as a means to address climate change. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast, impacting millions of people. As Sezen-Barrie students at Towson University traveled to the Jersey Shore to help clean up the devastated areas, they impressed upon her how important they believed their role as teachers could be to helping young generations cope with climate change.
Sezen-Barrie went on to join the faculty at the University of Maine, where she worked with teachers across New England and mid-Atlantic to develop science curriculum that incorporates climate change. In 2021, she was named rotating program director of the National Science Foundation’s Division for Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings, in which she contributed to federal science education initiatives on issues including wildfires and ocean engagement. When an endowed chair was created at UC Irvine in 2023 specifically to support climate and environmental change literacy for California educators, Sezen-Barrie saw a unique opportunity to make an impact.
“I saw interdisciplinary connections across UC Irvine, along with authentic opportunities to collaborate with educators, students and researchers,” Sezen-Barrie says. “My role gives me a chance to work toward solving big concerns for our community and for society.”
Sezen-Barrie has two books coming out this year about climate change education. The first, The Palgrave Handbook of Climate Change Research in Transdisciplinary Education (Springer, 2026), which she co-edited, offers theories and practices for teachers to incorporate climate change into their pedagogical practices. The second, a co-authored volume, Making Climate Justice Count (Harvard Education Press, 2026), offers insights on how students can connect their personal stories to climate data for deeper understanding. Both aim to support educators as they strive to address climate change in their classrooms.
“Children and youth are experiencing worse climate conditions than previous generations, so we need to teach them to know how to live with it, how to respond to it, how to think through decisions they’ll face in the future.” says Sezen-Barrie. “The field of education is now responsible for supporting children and youth through ongoing climate change.”
