UMF’s Graduate Certificate in Climate Education will prepare educators to integrate topics around climate change and related issues into their teaching.

Climate change is perhaps the most pressing issue society faces, and educators should be equipped with both relevant content and effective methods for discussing climate issues and potential solutions with students and the general public.

This 15 credit program uses a place-based approach allowing educators to focus on local issues that impact their community. This encourages a dialog between schools and the communities they support using their unique experience of climate change as context.

Flexibility

  • Complete as a standalone certificate program
  • Complete as part of one of our master’s programs

What will you study?

    • Creating and refining a nature-based curriculum
    • Integration of critical climate study content into daily lessons and educational experiences
    • Exploring leading theorists and theories that inform our understanding of climate change and the data that describes these theories in the world around us
    • Defining high quality or best practices in climate education
    • Locating and analyzing appropriate resources for climate education

  • Join Program Request More Information Request a Meeting

    This program requires the following 5 courses:

    This course will pragmatically connect the history and philosophy of climate change and
    sustainability within the field of education. Identification of key CC&S competencies and
    pedagogical practices will serve as the foundation for this and future courses in the
    Program

    This geology-focused course will look at climate change in the past and present. Through
    an investigation of the various records on different time scales students will be able to
    answer pressing questions about climate change. Labs will focus on both learning of the
    content and how these experiences can be modified for classroom lessons with students.

    This course will connect our place, in Maine, with climate change topics that are applicable locally and throughout the biosphere. Students will participate in lab-based field experiences that connect with how climate change is directly impacting us in Maine. Labs will focus on both learning of the content and how these experiences can be modified for classroom lessons with students.

    Sustainability looks at the interconnectedness of environmental, economic, and social perspectives. This course will analyze the social aspect of climate change and sustainability through a systems thinking approach.

    Holistically integrating all aspects of the program, this capstone experience will provide students with the opportunity to reframe their curriculum (i.e., units, course, programs) to support the building of the knowledge, skills and dispositions related to climate change and sustainability in their own students.


    Contact Us

    Division of Graduate & Continuing Education
    University of Maine at Farmington
    Theo Kalikow Education Center
    186 High Street
    Farmington, Maine 04938
    tel 207-778-7502
    fax 207-778-8134
    TYY (via Maine Relay Service) dial 711
    gradstudies@maine.edu

    Mailing address:
    Division of Graduate & Continuing Education
    University of Maine at Farmington
    111 South Street
    Farmington, Maine 04938