Education resources developed by NOAA’s community resilience education grantees

NOAA’s Environmental Literacy Program grantees have created products that support community resilience education. From curricula to peer reviewed publications, these products may be used or considered as models for those working in the field.

Educational resources

Hurricane Resilience curriculum

Lead institution: University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Center for Science Education
Project Title: R4Ed: Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships in Resilience Education
Project Description
Through this environmental science curriculum, designed for coastal locations where hurricanes are common, high school students can better understand the science of hurricanes, their impact on their communities, and how to become more resilient to them. On the webpage, educators can download the 20-day curriculum and associated resources.;

Hazard Education Awareness and Resilience Task Force (HEART Force)

Lead institution: University of Colorado Boulder / Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)
Project Title: HEARTForce: Hazard Education, Awareness & Resilience Taskforce
Project Description
This resource collection includes a curriculum, videos, and professional development opportunities related to environmental hazards in Colorado, such as wildfire, flood, and drought. The curriculum consists of hazard lessons, scenario-based role-play games, and a community resilience expo. This website also connects teachers to professional development workshops, a network of teachers around the state, and general support.;

Build Your Own Basin

Lead institution: Watershed Management Group
Project Title: Recharge the Rain: Community Resilience through STEM Education
Project Description
The “Build Your Own Basin” program gives community members the knowledge and materials to create rain gardens at home. In partnership with teachers from Arizona Project WET, students can design and build their own water harvesting basin at home with the help of the BYOB kits. 

Watershed Management Group’s resource library

Lead institution: Watershed Management Group
Project Title: Recharge the Rain: Community Resilience through STEM Education
Project Description
This resource library contains a variety of educational videos and documents on ways to make your community more resilient, from how to build your own rain garden to getting permits for a composting toilet in Arizona.

Online Resilience Education Database

Lead institution: Elizabeth River Project
Project Title: Preparing Norfolk Area Students for America’s Second Highest Sea Level Rise
Project Description
The Online Resilience Education Database contains resources, from formal reports to curricula, to help students create action projects that address flooding, sea level rise, reducing carbon footprints, and changes in climate.

Resilient Schools Consortium (RiSC) 1.0 curriculum

Lead institutions: Research Foundation of CUNY / Brooklyn College & National Wildlife Federation
Project Title: Resilient Schools Consortium (RiSC) Program
Project Descriptions
The Resilient Schools Consortium (RiSC) 1.0 curriculum enables students to understand the fundamentals of climate science and extreme weather risks. The accompanying RiSC Vulnerability Assessment helps students to assess their schools’ and neighborhoods’ vulnerability to these risks. An updated version of the curriculum also engages them in understanding how issues of equity and justice — often neglected in urban planning — impact local communities; and it provides hands-on activities that help to empower students and build community resilience. 

Climate Hazard Resilience Forums

Lead institutions: Arizona State University & Museum of Science, Boston
Project Title: Science Center Public Forums: Community Engagement for Environmental Literacy, Improved Resilience, and Decision-Making
Project Descriptions
This deliberative forum brings the participants through the resilience planning process for various generic cities in specific contexts. It consists of four separate modules on drought, extreme heat, extreme participation, and sea level rise.  Each city is based on a real place, and uses real data but was anonymized for unbiased deliberation. Participants learn and discuss stakeholder values, consider trade-offs of various resilience strategies, make a final resilience plan, and then experience visualizations of how their plan will affect the city and the people who live there.

The Wild Center’s Climate Education Resources

Lead institution: The Wild Center
Project Title: Convening Young Leaders for Climate Resilience in New York State
Project Description
This resource hub contains Youth Climate Summit webinars, climate change science resources, teacher resource and climate curriculum, climate change solutions, and current climate change news. 

Peer-reviewed publications

Birkett et al. (2023). Climate education policy in New York: preparing students for a climate-altered world. Journal of Science Policy and Governance. 22:01, DOL: https://doi.org/10.38126/JSPG220102

Boyd et al. (2021). Teaching practices around natural hazards and community resilience in Colorado, Journal of Geoscience Education, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10899995.2021.1964319

Hoffman, J. S. (2020). Learn, Prepare, Act: “Throwing Shade” on Climate Change, Journal of Museum Education 45:1, 28-41. https://doi.org/10.1080/10598650.2020.1711496

Hoffman et al. (2020). The Effects of Historical Housing Policies on Resident Exposure to Intra-Urban Heat: A Study of 108 US Urban Areas, Climate 8:12. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli8010012. 

Semmens et al. (2023). CREATE Resilience Through Science, Art, and Community Engagement, Community Science Vol 2:4, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2023CSJ000028

Sittenfeld et al. (2022). Citizen Science, Civics, and Resilient Communities: Informing Community Resilience Policies Through Local Knowledge, Community Values, and Community-Generated Data, Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 7(1), p.33. URL: https://theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/articles/10.5334/cstp.516/