The goal of the Climate Resilience Education and Action for Dedicated Youth Program (Climate READY Program) is to increase the environmental literacy of South Florida students, teachers, and the general community so they can become more resilient to extreme weather and/or other environmental hazards. To prepare for a future of increasing environmental hazards, communities will need an informed public that is willing to act on decisions on a personal and civic level. Education has the potential to play an important role in achieving that goal. However, despite dire predictions of the impacts of climate change, the topic has yet to make it into mainstream education in the South Florida classroom. Climate READY is a collaborative effort between FAU Pine Jog, the Palm Beach County Office of Resilience, the Coastal Resilience Partnership, South East Florida Regional Climate Change Compact, city sustainability offices in Boynton Beach, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, the School District of Palm Beach County and Galaxy E3 Elementary School. Climate READY will focus on engaging some of the most underserved and socially vulnerable communities located in Palm Beach County, Florida. The Climate READY Program has four interconnected components: Climate READY Institute (training 48 students, grades 9-12) to become Climate READY Ambassadors, Afterschool Climate READY Program (engaging at least 300 after school students in grades 4-8), Climate READY Teacher Professional Development (training 48 teachers from targeted schools) and Climate READY Community Outreach (engaging at least 600 community members at local community events). This project will leverage NOAA assets including Science on a Sphere (SOS) technology and datasets, the SOS Explorer Mobile application, Weather Ready Nation, US Climate Resilience Toolkit, and Owlie's Weather-Ready Educational Activities. FAU Pine Jog will use the Climate Action Learning Process to develop all program lessons. The primary outcome of the program will be to enhance the adaptive capacities of identified vulnerable communities so that they are more prepared to respond to climate-related hazards and to increase civic engagement, inclusive decision-making, and equity.

Minnesota and Wisconsin communities are facing multiple climate hazards including wildfires, drought, pollution, severe storms, flooding, health emergencies, and habitat and species loss. To build a robust youth component to state climate resiliency efforts, the Climate Youth Labs (CY-Labs) project will support place-based learning about climate resiliency with 120+ middle school youth using NOAA assets and elevate their voices through a national public media podcast series for youth. American Public Media and PBS Learning Media will air podcasts, inspiring more youth to create their own climate resiliency solutions. Partners include Twin Cities PBS; the University of Wisconsin-Superior; the University of Minnesota's Hennepin County 4-H program in Minneapolis; Native Suns Solar Cub program at the K-6 Ojibwe-language school in the Red Lake Nation, MN; and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). Rooted in youth empowerment and culturally responsive teaching, CY-Labs will elevate the voices of youth (ages 11-15) as they explore barriers to climate justice. The podcast programs will involve 20 youth at 4-H programs in Minneapolis serving primarily Black youth, 25 Indigenous youth from the Red Lake Nation, and 75 youth from the Northern Waters Environmental school in Hayward, WI (with 25% Ojibwe youth from the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation), the Superior Middle School and Northwestern Middle School in Maple, WI. Educators will learn to use NOAA educational resources including Climate.gov, Teaching Climate, the Global Climate Dashboard, Climate Explorer and the U.S Climate Resilience Toolkit to help youth learn about climate change. Educators will help youth ensure the resiliency and protection of their communities in the face of climate hazards, create meaningful change within their communities, and advocate for climate resiliency solutions aligned with state resiliency plans. CY-Labs draws on recent research that shows that effective climate change education programs are personally relevant, encourage discussion to navigate controversial issues, engage in the scientific process, address misconceptions, and incorporate youth action projects. At the annual Youth Climate Justice Summit in St. Paul, MN and at Superior Days in Madison, WI students will share their solutions with state legislators. Program collaborators include Climate Generation, the Lake Superior Research Institute, NOAA's Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve, the MN Governor's Climate Change Subcabinet, the MN House Climate Caucus; the WI Governor's Climate Change Taskforce, the City of Superior Mayor's Office, FEMA's MN and WI State Mitigation Hazard Officers, and TPT NOW, a partnership between PBS, public health agencies and NOAA weather forecasters. Project advisors include: Frank Niepold, NOAA Climate Education Program Manager; Anne Gold, Director of Education & Outreach, NOAA Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences; Jen Kretser, Director of Climate Initiatives, The Wild Center; Jothsna Harris, Change Narrative; Dr. Michael Notaro, NOAA Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments; Dr. Chris Tessum, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Capitol Climate Connection podcasters Patti Acomb and Jamie Long; City Climate Corner podcaster Larry Kraft; Brains On! podcast producers Molly Bloom, Sanden Totten and Marc Sanchez; and Dr. Lisa Gardiner, John Ristvey, Keliann LaConte and Becca Hatheway, UCAR. The evaluator is Dr. Lauren M. Shea.

Minnesota and Wisconsin communities are facing multiple climate hazards including wildfires, drought, pollution, severe storms, flooding, health emergencies, and habitat and species loss. To build a robust youth component to state climate resiliency efforts, the Climate Youth Labs (CY-Labs) project will support place-based learning about climate resiliency with 120+ middle school youth using NOAA assets and elevate their voices through a national public media podcast series for youth. American Public Media and PBS Learning Media will air podcasts, inspiring more youth to create their own climate resiliency solutions. Partners include Twin Cities PBS; the University of Wisconsin-Superior; the University of Minnesota’s Hennepin County 4-H program in Minneapolis; Native Sun’s Solar Cub program at the K-6 Ojibwe-language school in the Red Lake Nation, MN; and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). Rooted in youth empowerment and culturally responsive teaching, CY-Labs will elevate the voices of youth (ages 11-15) as they explore barriers to climate justice. The podcast programs will involve 20 youth at 4-H programs in Minneapolis serving primarily Black youth, 25 Indigenous youth from the Red Lake Nation, and 75 youth from the Northern Waters Environmental school in Hayward, WI (with 25% Ojibwe youth from the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation), the Superior Middle School and Northwestern Middle School in Maple, WI. Educators will learn to use NOAA educational resources including Climate.gov, Teaching Climate, the Global Climate Dashboard, Climate Explorer and the U.S Climate Resilience Toolkit to help youth learn about climate change. Educators will help youth ensure the resiliency and protection of their communities in the face of climate hazards, create meaningful change within their communities, and advocate for climate resiliency solutions aligned with state resiliency plans. CY-Labs draws on recent research that shows that effective climate change education programs are personally relevant, encourage discussion to navigate controversial issues, engage in the scientific process, address misconceptions, and incorporate youth action projects. At the annual Youth Climate Justice Summit in St. Paul, MN and at Superior Days in Madison, WI students will share their solutions with state legislators. Program collaborators include Climate Generation, the Lake Superior Research Institute, NOAA’s Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve, the MN Governor’s Climate Change Subcabinet, the MN House Climate Caucus; the WI Governor’s Climate Change Taskforce, the City of Superior Mayor’s Office, FEMA’s MN and WI State Mitigation Hazard Officers, and TPT NOW, a partnership between PBS, public health agencies and NOAA weather forecasters. Project advisors include: Frank Niepold, NOAA Climate Education Program Manager; Anne Gold, Director of Education & Outreach, NOAA Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences; Jen Kretser, Director of Climate Initiatives, The Wild Center; Jothsna Harris, Change Narrative; Dr. Michael Notaro, NOAA Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments; Dr. Chris Tessum, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Capitol Climate Connection podcasters Patti Acomb and Jamie Long; City Climate Corner podcaster Larry Kraft; Brains On! podcast producers Molly Bloom, Sanden Totten and Marc Sanchez; and Dr. Lisa Gardiner, John Ristvey, Keliann LaConte and Becca Hatheway, UCAR. The evaluator is Dr. Lauren M. Shea.

Climate change disproportionately impacts low-income and otherwise marginalized communities that typically have the fewest resources to adapt. Furthermore, the very communities that feel the effects of climate change most acutely have been historically underrepresented in the fields of sustainability and green building. The Building a Green Texas (BGT) project helps address these concerns by giving high school students opportunities to develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence to tackle challenges posed by climate change. In the process, students gain valuable green career skills and credentials and become part of a green building school-to-job pipeline that will help contribute to a more diverse workforce. Texas-based nonprofit EcoRise, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Texas Marine Science Institute/National Estuarine Reserve System of NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management will lead this robust, three-year project beginning in Central Texas in Year 1 and expanding into Houston and Texas Gulf Coast communities in Year 2. Through school-year field experiences and paid summer internships, students in the program will use established scientific evidence, citizen science, and an understanding of location-specific socioeconomic and ecological factors to explore current and future extreme weather phenomena and other environmental hazards facing their communities. They will gain real-world learning experiences and career exposure by directly engaging with scientists, civic leaders, green building professionals, and NOAA data and staff. As students help design community-based green building projects, they will consider scientific uncertainty, cultural knowledge, and social equity, in the real-world context of improving community resilience.